I am restricting the scope of this article to the traditional competition and not touching on the non-traditional or modern competition in terms of recreational drugs i.e. methamphetamine, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances and abuse of prescription drugs.
The fear that alcohol, tobacco and opioid industries have today, as earlier, is that legalization of cannabis is likely to eat into their markets. The normal tendency for a cannabis consumer is to reduce the intake of alcohol, tobacco or opioids when cannabis is available. A person is likely to have far fewer drinks and far fewer cigarettes when he or she has access to cannabis. Cannabis has been used in numerous instances by opioid addicts to wean themselves of the habit. Given the exorbitant costs of heroin as well as its dubious levels of purity, if organic cannabis was freely available, it is quite likely that users of all these recreational drugs too would switchover to cannabis completely or at least reduce their consumption.
Most people are aware of the fact that cannabis has great recreational value and vast medicinal benefits along with a very low harm profile and has been used by humans for as long as we can remember. This is as against the deadly nature of tobacco, heroin and alcohol that claims millions of lives world wide every year with minimal health benefits and high addiction rates. Legalizing cannabis would thus dent the tobacco, alcohol and opioid consumption markets maybe not drastically but possibly significantly. This is a key reason why these industries world wide oppose cannabis legalization or at least try to slow it down through their lobbies, working in conjunction with medical bodies and lawmakers. Public opinion has been so systematically shaped in favor of these harmful industries and against the wonderful recreational and medicinal plant cannabis that today it is natural for the world's public to oppose cannabis legalization as unthinkable, even as they sip their alcohol, take a drag of tobacco and pop or inject an opioid. To even suggest the prohibition of any of these three most harmful recreational drugs would be met with the stiffest opposition, especially among the very entities that strongly oppose cannabis legalization. Can you imagine banning beer in the UK and Germany or wine in France or tobacco in the UK and Russia? But that is precisely what these very same entities have done in the nations where cannabis was the equivalent of beer, wine or tobacco.
Having said that, it need not be the case of existence of one recreational drug at the cost of another. The cannabis lover is not as irrational or hardhearted as the tobacco, opium or alcohol lover. Cannabis users have always been peaceful and tolerant, believing in the co-existence of all. Cannabis, alcohol and tobacco do go well together. Many consumers of one are also very likely to be consumers of the other two. Beer, especially, pairs well with cannabis. Maybe the common ancestry of hops and cannabis with the Humulus plant has something to do with it. Many cannabis smokers mix their cannabis with tobacco and smoke it. Authorities are reluctant to acknowledge this but nearly every cannabis user is also comfortable with alcohol and tobacco. The fact that the cannabis user typically chooses to consume lesser alcohol and tobacco than a non-cannabis user is usually a matter of preference. So even though businesses view cannabis as a threat to alcohol and tobacco, most cannabis consumers would regard alcohol and tobacco as accompaniments to their cannabis. This is increasingly being recognized and one of the driving forces of cannabis social consumption lounges. Even opium, in its natural form, was widely used alongside cannabis in places like India for a very long time. As with the current emerging strategy of using cannabis to wean people of opioid addictions, I suspect that the usage of cannabis along with natural opium helped many people in traditional societies to control the highly addictive nature of opium and balance it.
Many large alcohol and tobacco companies are starting to invest in cannabis businesses to look at potential points of synergy in the future such as cannabis infused ales and cannabis cigarettes. In many places, cannabis regulatory bodies are also involved with alcohol regulation. Many liquor retail outlets are looking to also sell cannabis if regulations permit. In many places, laws are being looked at to permit cannabis sales and smoking in places that allow tobacco sales and smoking. The regulations that apply to cannabis packaging, branding and advertising are currently on the same lines as regulations for alcohol and tobacco. You could say that big tobacco and big alcohol getting into the cannabis space is a good thing given that they have the ability to mass produce, standardize and reach large numbers of people. But what we need to remember is that both tobacco and alcohol are highly regulated thus maximizing and concentrating revenues and profits to the few big businesses that have the financial and political clout. If these big businesses enter the cannabis space and try to make the herb a regulated product that only a few are entitled to sell and control, then it is best that these traditional competitors of cannabis are kept away from cannabis. Cannabis is first and foremost the plant of every single individual, especially, the poorest people of the world. Cannabis is not a recreational drug to be controlled and regulated by powerful businesses and governments, but a herb to be grown in the garden of every single person in the world who wishes to do so, be it the poorest or the richest. That is fundamental to the relationship between cannabis and all other recreational drugs, be it traditional or non-traditional. All entities who wish to involve themselves in the cannabis space will do well to remember this fundamental truth.
Related articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.- In 2018, U.S. retail alcohol sales totaled $254 billion, nearly 7x overall cannabis sales (both legal and illicit) of $37.2 billion.
- New Frontier Data estimates that overall domestic cannabis sales grew 6.7% in 2018, while alcohol sales meanwhile grew at 5% year over year (source: bw166).
- In its upcoming white paper, The Nexus of Alcohol and Cannabis, New Frontier Data will provide useful insights into how cannabis consumers use alcohol (i.e., frequency profiles, policy views, and cannibalization analysis): For instance, 50% of high-frequency cannabis users are also high-frequency alcohol users, while cannabis users largely state a preference for cannabis over alcohol.
- The report also offers key takeaways for cannabis and alcohol business operators, identifying opportunities to attract new consumers, and risks associated with changing patterns by both alcohol and cannabis users.'
Cheers to that...
'One of the nation’s leading alcohol industry associations held a briefing on Capitol Hill on Friday to tell lawmakers and congressional staffers about its position on marijuana legalization.
The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) became the first major alcohol association to call for the end of federal cannabis prohibition in July. At last week’s briefing, the group reaffirmed that stance, emphasizing that the federal government should allow states to legalize marijuana without interference.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/major-alcohol-association-briefs-congress-on-marijuana-legalization/
'“We think the drinker and the cannabis consumer are the same person,” Mr. Bensch said. “There’s no reason they can’t smoke a joint and drink a beer at the same time.”'
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/dining/drinks/beer-cbd-marijuana-breweries.html
'With a Saint Patrick’s Day weekend in sight, the occasion seemed right for the Hemp Business Journal to get into the holiday spirit with an update about the current state of hemp- and cannabis-infused beverages.
As detailed in a survey last October by New Frontier Data (parent company of the HBJ), nearly half (45%) of cannabis consumers who also drink expected to eventually replace at least some of their alcohol use with cannabis. For those who enjoy the taste and traditions yet worry about the health effects of alcohol, a new profusion of non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beer and wines are offering some intriguing potential replacements (where legally available).'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/this-st-patricks-day-drink-options-offer-slainte-with-thc-and-cbd/
'The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston (not in Ireland) in 1737. Across the 282 years of parades since those origins, the holiday for the patron saint of Ireland has established itself as the third-most popular annual drinking day in the United States, where revelers consume an average of 4.2 alcoholic servings on the day, after Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday (4.6) and New Year’s Eve (4.4), according to Alcohol.org.
This weekend, as projected by WalletHub, 55% of Americans plan to celebrate the holiday and will spend a combined $5.6 billion (an average of $40) doing so. Nearly 1/3 (32%) of men and 1/5 (20%) of women say that they binge drink on the holiday, as defined by consuming either (by men) 5 or more, or (by women) 4 or more drinks over a two-hour period on a day when American revelers overall consume 152.5% more beer (and 819% more Guinness, specifically) than on an average day.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/on-st-patricks-day-signs-of-cannabis-displacing-alcoholic-beverages/
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