In his book "Class Counts", Erik Wright (1997) offers the following illustration about how two classes might have totally incompatible interests. In the 1940s comic Li’l Abner, there are only two classes, workers and capitalists. The capitalists are looking for a community where labor is cheap and settle on the town of Dogpatch, which, it just so happens, has become overrun by a benevolent creature called a "shmoo." Shmoos have the ability to change themselves into anything necessary for human existence but not into luxury items. Even better, since the shmoos can multiply themselves an infinite number of times and desire only to serve humans, "in effect, the shmoo restores humanity to the Garden of Eden.” Allow me to depart from the original comic story to translate Wright’s illustration of class interests in capitalist society to render the mechanisms behind the emerging cannabis industry more visible. The story of capitalists looking for the right place to expand their businesses and extract cheap labor resembles the story of the DGH investment into cannabis industry in Czech Republic. While the Li’l Abner’s capitalists settled in the …show more content…
However, only the wealthy received a license to proliferate and keep it. For workers cannabis remained strictly prohibited. They had to buy its products from capitalists with money they made by selling them their labor. Prague was the perfect place for the DGH to open the ICCI. Despite the centuries long experiences workers were told homegrown cannabis could be dangerous for them. Restrictive measures were applied in the name of health and technology. So capitalists exploited workers who create the wealth for the ruling class not just of another freedoms but also of access to yet another resources. Many workers did not conform and invited the creature into their homes to harvest benefits it provided. Such is the practice of