Summary: KMO welcomes journalist and author Doug Fine back to the C-Realm to talk about his new book, Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution. Doug spent a year talking with cannabis farmers, local citizens, and law enforcement in Mendocino County, California, where medical growers who want to comply with that state's medical marijuana law can obtain permission from the Sheriff's Department to grow up to 99 cannabis plants without fear of arrest or harassment by local law enforcement. The program has been enormously successful, and Doug describes it as a glimpse at the coming Drug Peace and a preview of how cannabis can move from the underground into the legitimate economy. Doug thinks that the market for cannabis as a psychoactive agent may end up a niche market compared to the potential of hemp for use as a biofuel feedstock. Still, the economic implications of removing the artificial price support for marijuana that prohibition provides are complex, and KMO and Doug try to tease them out for clear-headed analysis. At the end of the podcast, KMO encourages listeners to check out the Joe Bageant interveiw transcript that he recently made available for the Kindle. Music by Camo Cowboys.
