Smoke It if You've Got It. You Won't Get Rich If You Sell It

Hey! There’s green in them thar hills!

NOT!

Sam and I know a lot of you gold-rush types out there want to overrun Washington State with your get-rich quick desires, now that we’ve legalized marijuana, but trust us, if you are students of history, at all, you’ll realize most gold rushes (green in this case) result in very few people ever getting rich. The odds of you striking it rich raising and selling marijuana are about like your odds of winning a mega-lottery - several hundred million to one. Boy would Vegas like to have that kind of house edge!

Sam and I would rather buy lottery tickets in hopes of striking it rich because it would cost us less money and it’s a whole lot less work. To grow marijuana here you have to grab hold of some land, plant seedlings, water them, weed them and guard them against predators human and otherwise. Sam and I bet our local deer love young delicious loco weed.

“I get the munchies every time I eat this stuff,” Big Horned Buck snorts. “I get the giggles,” dainty dawn doe,” snickers.

To sell marijuana here you’ll have to lease or buy a storefront. You’ll have to apply for and secure business licenses. You’ll have to hire help and guard against them stealing product and/or money from you. Being a Mary Jane entrepreneur won’t be as easy as whipping up a batch of brownies you know.

This reminds us of the recent debacle that has resulted in Washington State finally getting out of the liquor business (which they needed to do). So many people thought they were going to buy a state liquor store and get rich quick - hasn’t happened. Many of the private liquor store owners are fast finding out that the competition for get-rich-quick dollars is keen indeed. Every grocery store, drug store and mom-and-pop market in town are suddenly stocking their shelves with booze and vying for the almighty alcoholic dollar. Ain’t nobody getting rich.

To get rich quick these days you have to have an exclusive franchise like the cable TV companies that have whole neighborhoods locked up, because the neighborhood covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) don’t allow you to screw an antenna or satellite dish to you roof. Or you have to be a car dealer where they tell you when you bring your car in for service that the service will cost you $800 and that only includes jacking your vehicle up and “inspecting” various belts and bolts but does not include a real service like swapping out your antifreeze or taking wheels off to inspect your brake pads - and especially does not cover any extra parts.

People who want to get rich growing and selling marijuana should watch a movie like North to Alaska about the prospectors trudging through waist-deep snow so they could starve or freeze to death to arrive at their final destination. The California 49’ers didn’t get rich in a warmer climate either.

Sam and I say three bags of poop on get-rich quick schemes. There are enough of those in everyday’s newspaper or on the internet. You don’t have to think up any new ones. If you persist, however, there’s an insurance company advertising on TV that should you go for your dream, they’ve got you covered. Humph! They’re the ones who will end up getting rich.