Here’s the ad for Marijuana Munchies, now perfectly legal in Colorado and in Washington in a few months. And this is from the story that goes with the photo:

An air carrier is veering into a product-pitching space long dominated by late-night, fast-foodies, hinting at legalized marijuana while beckoning flyers to “get mile high.”

Spirit Airlines, playing off the approved use and sale of cannabis in the Rocky Mountain State, dangles discounted fares to Colorado where, its ad informs, “the no smoking sign is off,” nudging the content needle inside a sales niche called marijuana marketing.

To point out how this helps take the US to the opposite extreme of the Protestant work ethic, and will undermine the culture that once brought it success, makes no sense to those who count. In the ACT, it is still technically illegal but no one is arrested. In the Netherlands, they have made marijuana legal but under very restricted conditions. In Colorado, it is now freely available, pushed in a way you cannot even advertise tobacco. But we shall see how this ends up, but no matter how it turns out, I suspect the law will not be repealed and is likely to spread.

In fact, I don’t see how it can be contained. This is now in the hands of those whose aim is to further the spread of weed as fast as possible. What a thought, How legal marijuana could be the next great American industry:

As legalized marijuana sales take off in Colorado, here’s what a pot business model and mature marketplace might look like.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana—and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a medical marijuana plan in his State of the State speech last week.

But voters in Colorado and Washington state went a step further in 2012, becoming the first in the nation to legalize small plant amounts for adult recreational use and to regulate it like alcohol. Colorado sales began on New Year’s Day. Marijuana retailers are scheduled to open in Washington state later this year.

Amid this historic backdrop, a small merchant-focused pot industry is growing, alongside forerunners to national—potentially public—cannabis companies. The legal marijuana sector could unfold and function like the beer industry, with small batch varieties nabbing market share amid larger brands.

A marijuana-led recovery, here it comes:

In a new analysis on the marijuana marketplace, San Francisco-based angel investor network ArcView Group forecasts a 64 percent surge in the legal U.S. cannabis market to $2.34 billion by 2014. The five-year national market could grow to $10.2 billion amid rising demand and potentially new state markets, according to ArcView forecasts.

It makes me laugh when the generations on the way up and in the middle of life make fun of my hippie generation when so far as I can tell, they are in every way exactly in our mould.