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  Former Microsoft Manager Has Big Ideas About Pot

Posted by CN Staff on May 30, 2013 at 07:59:33 PT
By Bob Young, Seattle Times Staff Reporter 
Source: Seattle Times 

USA -- Former Microsoft manager Jamen Shively wants to create the first national brand of retail marijuana and to open pot trade with Mexico. Shively plans to announce that and more in a Thursday news conference he says will feature Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico. “Let’s go big or go home,” Shively said. “We’re going to mint more millionaires than Microsoft with this business.”He’s acquiring medical-marijuana dispensaries in Washington and Colorado, he said, and plans to become the leader in both the medical and adult-recreational pot markets. He sees the marijuana market as the only one of its size in which there does not exist a single established brand.
He and Fox plan to announce a proposal for regulating the trade of marijuana between the two countries, he said. Some details of the trade agreement remain to be worked out, such as how to get around international rules forbidding legal pot, Shively admitted. “I don’t know how exactly that would be done, but I know it’s been done in other industries,” he said. Alison Holcomb, primary author of the state’s legal-marijuana law, said Shively faces a huge obstacle in the federal government’s prohibition of marijuana. “Having a national chain of marijuana-based companies is not only explicitly counter to the existing prohibition, but also counter to the government’s expressed concern about business growing too large,” said Holcomb, drug-policy director for the ACLU of Washington. But Shively, 45, likened the federal prohibition to the Berlin Wall and said it’s crumbling, with fewer defenders every day. He also said he’s created a way to shield investors from federal regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission.And, he contends a venture this size is too big to operate recklessly and take risks — such as diverting legal pot to black markets — that the federal government is most concerned about. “What we’re all about is making it extremely professional and having the highest quality and efficiencies,” he said. What if the feds were to come after him? Shively paraphrased Obi-Wan Kenobi. “He said ‘Darth, if you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’”If she were Shively’s attorney, Holcomb said, she’d advise him to read the so-called Cole memorandum from the U.S. Department of Justice. It “explicitly mentioned a concern with operations involving thousands of plants and millions of dollars” and is evidence of the federal concern with big pot businesses. Shively, though, seems undeterred. He has become almost evangelical about pot and its benefits, particularly for medical patients, such as his father who has prostate cancer.“I’ve just fallen in love with the plant,” he said. “Especially in the medical realm I’ve gone from entrepreneur to advocate to activist, seriously.”Shively worked at Microsoft six years, he said, and had the title of corporate strategy manager. He said he’s been smoking pot for a year and a half. Source: Seattle Times (WA)Author: Bob Young, Seattle Times Staff ReporterPublished: May 29, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Seattle Times CompanyContact: opinion seatimes.comWebsite: http://www.seattletimes.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/ls0lrw5PCannabisNews  -- Cannabis  Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 

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Comment #9 posted by FoM on May 31, 2013 at 05:56:12 PT
Time Business: A Starbucks for Pot?
A Starbucks for Pot? National Chain of Marijuana Stores in the WorksMay 31, 2013URL: http://business.time.com/2013/05/31/a-starbucks-for-pot-national-chain-of-marijuana-stores-in-the-works/
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on May 30, 2013 at 18:29:44 PT
more info
here is another article, Vicente Fox would not be involved in this company apparently.http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021090738_apuslegalizingmarijuanafox1stldwritethru.htmlWow, Vicente Fox seems like a great guy. He is serious about this - what are his motivations. Probably honorable, which is so rare. I suspect he feels real empathy/guilt over the bloodbath in his country.This type of lobbying/PR work that he's doing (donating) is striking a direct blow against the US and its policies that created the civil war in Mexico. He truly sees it for what it is, the US just using Mexico like a ****. fill in the blank.
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Comment #7 posted by Sam Adams on May 30, 2013 at 18:09:25 PT
Return of Mexican sativas?
fantastic.No surprise to see the author of the Washington "Communist Marijuana" law dumping on hard-working capitalist businessmen.They will bring you the cheapest and highest quality herb my friends. Not a commission of 30 Communists dithering around for months to come up with a plan.
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Comment #6 posted by anomalies on May 30, 2013 at 16:38:27 PT:
US JOBS
I'm happy he is for the legalization of cannabis, ""BUT"" he is already wanting to send MUCH needed jobs here in the USA to other countries,,, I will certainly boycott this company and support our local economy and families.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 30, 2013 at 14:54:49 PT

The GCW
Mexican Pot was always considered not very good back in the 70s. Maybe it is better now. Hawaiian Pot was considered very good and also Columbian was considered good.
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on May 30, 2013 at 14:17:43 PT

FoM,
We don't need no Mexican pot.We also don't need no Mexican beer, German beer, Belgian beer etc.People do like choice. Perhaps the Mexican cannabis will be with a lesser buzz, have seeds and cost less. Kilo style. Some people prefer lots and lots of joints instead of onies. Legal Mexican pot will be good for getting the black market / cartels either going legit or eliminating them as far as pot goes. Mexican farmers benefit. The feds need to be controlled in a big way and Shively can surely help. -0-I like this line:"But Shively, 45, likened the federal prohibition to the Berlin Wall and said it’s crumbling, with fewer defenders every day."That puts the feds into perspective of the way citizens view them.Except for the big bully / feds propping up that wall, it's practically down now.NOTHING CAN STOP THAT WALL FROM FALLING AT THIS POINT.
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Comment #3 posted by Swazi-X on May 30, 2013 at 13:43:57 PT

Go Big And Go Home?
If the only way to free this plant from these bizarre restrictions is to force a Wal-Mart style business model to sell it then let the Blue Light Specials begin!Unfortunately, a big well-funded commercial industry is exactly what the feds don't want and it presents a nice, ripe peach of a target for those vampires we call federal prosecutors. Too bad he announced his plans this far in advance - the lying sacks of crap that are our federal government will most likely wait until there's something worthwhile to steal/destroy then send in their moron-goons from the D.E.A. to finish the job.Once it goes to court they will lie, cheat and stonewall their way to conviction by threatening every relative of every employee they can with bogus federal charges until the folks they want to nail make a deal to call off the dogs.This is how our "justice" system is rigged to assure convictions when common sense, ethics and even the basic rule of law show the charges to be baseless, and it's how our masters intimidate all us "little people" into silence about this fascist repression of science in order to preserve their funding and power over us.But on a happy note, we WILL overcome and people like this guy are who will continue to bring the issue to the front of popular opinion. It's too bad that the impetus is the same rampant capitalism that tends to pervert everything, but if that's the rules of the game for success bring it on, and the best of luck to you!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 30, 2013 at 08:51:47 PT

Grown in America
I don't see why we need to use Mexico when we need jobs here in the USA. Why import?
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on May 30, 2013 at 08:20:22 PT

Shively
Hey man, you are a little late to the party. But you are a welcome addition anyway, we can always use more activists.Better late then never bud! We always need new blood, it refreshes the movement!Cheers and Peace!
Pot Farm
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