[Crito]

People making house-calls selling knives is also still a thing, but I wouldn't recommend getting into that business. The business existing doesn't mean it is a smart business to get into.

The high-availability-doctor/one-stop-shop variety of weed business relies on loose medical laws but draconian recreational laws. Recreational users don't want to shop around for a doctor to approve their "condition", so these businesses do very well for themselves. Legalization, combined with regulation of medical, will remove a large segment of these businesses target audience.

Some people seem to think I am saying that medical marijuana will go away. I am not. I am just saying that these "convenience businesses" cater primarily to recreational users in markets with draconian recreational laws. Those people are their bread and butter.

Do you think that Florida's infamous "pill farm clinics" would still do well if you could buy Vicodin over the counter in 7-11's? Doctors would still be prescribing Vicodin because it is a useful medication, but would those businesses that specialize in getting prescriptions for middle-class addicts stay in business?

[unchocked]

I think you're missing the point entirely. It's that marijuana will be sold recreationally, under recreational law, but with the guise of specific medical or "wellness" benefits as a competitive differentiator. Much like nutritional supplements are legal, but there are still doctors who make money promoting them because the endorsement stimulates demand for that particular product vs. its otherwise indistinguishable competitors.

And the reason that we're likely to see this for marijuana, is that there is now a well-established narrative that marijuana is chock-full of health benefits. So people (the sort who are wealthy and anxious enough to eat organic and "natural" and question "traditional medicine") are going to be likely to buy into that sort of doctor endorsement to make them feel better about their recreational drug habit. And the market will provide...

To reiterate my lead in a different way, this has nothing to do with doctors writing prescriptions for medical marijuana.