Washington State Selects Botec Analysis Corp. as Finalist for Marijuana Consulting Contract
The Washington State Liquor Control Board will announce tomorrow that it has tentatively selected Botec Analysis Corp. to provide cannabis-related consulting services tied to the emerging recreational marijuana industry, according to information obtained by MMJ Business Daily. […]
Little public information is available about Botec, at least on the Internet. A Botec Analysis Corporation based in Massachusetts has conducted studies on various issues – including substance abuse treatment and domestic violence – for several states. Mark Kleiman – a professor of public policy at the University of California in Los Angeles and co-author of the 2012 book “Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know†– reportedly heads up Botec, according to an author profile on Amazon.com.
Sadly this just confirms.too me,that I-502 was written too fail and having Mark give advice just guarantees failure.
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I sure hope this turns out better than I think it will.
DC – it’s pretty good now, and if I’m right, and the government system doesn’t happen (honestly, isn’t getting Kleiman on board confirmation that they’re just going through the motions?), it will stay good.
Relax. Enjoy the shitshow.
Here is good reason to not have to go to the hospital in GigHarbor, WA:
Hospital Calls Police on Washington Man for Legal Possessing Cannabis
http://goo.gl/rnH1I
Now we know why Kleiman stopped blogging about cannabis policy rather abruptly late last year. He doesn’t want to jeopardise his consultancy fees.
Well if that ain’t the shit there. If true, Mark’s true colors will be out for all to see. A real profiteer! Fence? What fence? Mark’s a free-range prohib.
And the drug war’s Theater of the Absurd rolls on. I’m not sure whether I should laugh or cry.
Part of me wants to ask, what’s WA’s unemployment rate? And they are gonna hire MARK KLEIMAN?? but the rest of me just rolls eyes and says, another sign of the end of days.
As ill prepared as academics and government employees are when it comes to operating and advancing in the commercial sector, it’s a mismatch of responsibilities. Public policy analysis isn’t going to help. An MBA might.
Mark Kleiman AKA Botec may live to regret their contract. The whole world is watching. Any screw-up on their part will be epic compared to anything they’ve done before. Botec is riding the whirlwind, and we get to watch.
It’s pretty hard to screw up. Anything is better than prohibition.
You’re both right.
I find myself in the uncomfortable position of simultaneously despising the idea and not really strongly objecting to it.
Who were they going to hire? Kevin Sabet? Me? Not likely. If Kleiman is really there to fact-check, and what he actually does is fact-check (as opposed to attempting to force his strong personal biases into the equation), then he’s actually a good choice.
Well, personally I think Ed Rosenthal’s group might have been a better pick. Sadly, MK always seems to inject his strong personal biases into his analyses.
I seriously question the wisdom of hiring someone to help figure out “how to build a huge pot industry from scratch” who says “that it’s mind-boggling if, in fact, hundreds of lawyers in California have been telling their clients they can safely run massive enterprises growing and selling marijuana” and “if you’re growing 2000 plants at a time, and making money at it, you’re precisely the sort of large-scale, for-profit operator Eric Holder promised to go after”. What on earth does that opinion leave him to recommend?
Good luck, WA. You’re going to need it.
I stand by my prediction that it just ain’t happening. Government bureaucrats are just too risk averse – the first threat from the feds and they will scurry around and stop the process in fear of arrest.
Kleiman? He’s perfect for I-502 – mainstream and non-threatening to prohibitionist interests.
What we got is legal retail-quantities of weed and a bs presumptive dui law. It’s a step. But a small step.
When the gravy train comes rolling in I predict Kleinman’s song and dance will change. Just like every prohibitionist turned legalization cheerleader we’ve ever met, I think when he’s in the thick of it he will see the light. I see it as one more nonsense spouting prohib off our backs, basically leaving Sabet as the last of the vocal minority “experts”.
.
.
This one ranks up there with the cop in Canada that pulled a guy over for suspiciously driving at the speed limit and the search warrant issued in part because of a midnight trash search in which the cops found plant trimmings and stalks in the trash. No, not remnants of cannabis plants, just regular old legal houseplant trim.