Porn King Backs Pot Initiative

The only thing missing is rock and roll.

A backer of the pro-pot position in California’s referendum on decriminalizing recreational marijuana use is also an entrepreneur in the field of mail order pornography and sex toys.

Philip K. Harvey, president of North Carolina-based Adam&Eve, a mail-order firm touted as the nation’s largest provider of adult films and sexual products, is so far the sole donor to the Drug Policy Action Committee to Tax and Regulate Marijuana. He has donated $100,000 to the cause.

Californians will vote in November on a Proposition 18, a measure to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and over, allow localities to tax and regulate the drug, and allow small residential growing of pot.

The ballot measure follows several years of allowing marijuana to be used medicinally, and the growth of pot dispensaries throughout the Golden State. It also follows agitation by some who want to see the drug regulated and taxed, in ways similar to alcohol.

But legalizing marijuana in California wouldn’t exactly lead to a bonanza for pot purveyors. In fact, it could mean just the opposite.

As Brett Chase reported in Portfolio.com earlier this month, legalizing pot could cut the cost of the weed while boosting usage. Here’s some of what he wrote here earlier this month:

“Legalizing pot in California would cut the price by as much as 80 percent and may double consumption.

Those predictions come from a study by the Rand Corp. as California voters look forward to a November vote on legalizing marijuana. State officials previously said taxing weed would haul in more than $1 billion a year in new revenue. But that figure may be much lower or higher depending on a number of variables, the Rand researchers say.

The cost of high-quality marijuana may drop to as low $38 an ounce from about $375 today, the researchers estimate after analyzing production costs and current pricing.

Lower cost, higher availability, and reduced stigma around the drug would increase consumption by 50 to 100 percent, which would increase usage to levels not seen since the late 1970s, the study finds.”