新聞翻譯 - A Starbucks for Pot? National Chain of Marijuana Stores in the Works

A Starbucks for Pot? National Chain of Marijuana Stores in the Works
一個大麻界星巴克? 國際大麻連鎖店正進行中

If one newly converted pot-smoking visionary has his way, the Washington-based company he created will become the Starbucks or Coca Cola of the cannabis industry. He even has plans to import marijuana from south of the border–currently illegal according to international law—and he’s apparently got the former president of Mexico on board.

        如果這位近來轉型的大麻夢想家有其能耐，那麼他創建於華盛頓的公司有可能變成菸草產業中的星巴克或可口可樂! 他甚至還計劃要從墨西哥進口有違國際法的菸草，而他顯然對前墨西哥總統有一套。

Jamen Shively is probably not the kind of person you’d picture selling pot. He used to be a manager at Microsoft, and wears a suit and tie, a short preppy haircut, and nerdy glasses. He talks like a nerd too. When asked by the Seattle Times if he was worried about the federal government cracking down on his planned retail cannabis operations, Shively quoted the famous words of Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Star Wars“: “He said ‘Darth, if you strike me down I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’”

Jamen Shively可能不是你想像中販賣大麻的那種人，他曾經是微軟的經理，穿西裝打領帶，雅痞的髮型戴著宅男眼鏡，而他談吐也像個宅男。 有次西雅圖時報問他對於聯邦政府調查他意圖大麻零售的操作是否會擔心時，他引述了星際大戰中Obi-Wan Kenobi所說的：「Darth，如果你擊敗我，我將變成你無法想像般的強大」。

Nonetheless, Shively says that cannabis is in his blood. He claims that his great grandfather, a government official in the Phillipines in the late 1890s when it was a Spanish colony, was the world’s largest grower of hemp at the time. Shively’s planned chain of retail marijuana stores is named after this great cannabis cultivator: Diego Pellicer (pronounced “Payee-Sayr”).

但Shively說大麻早已流入他血液之中，他說他的曾祖父在1890年的菲律賓擔任政府官員，當時仍是西班牙的殖民地，是全世界最大的煙草種植者。Shively計畫中的煙草零售鏈便是以偉大的煙草栽種者 Diego Pellicer命名。(發音為Payee-Sayr)

At a press conference in Seattle on Thursday, Shively announced plans for Diego Pellicer to become the first national retail brand focused on selling medical-use and adult-use (recreational) cannabis alike. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a unique moment in history,” Shively said. “The Berlin Wall of the prohibition cannabis is weak, and it is crumbling as we speak.”

一場位於西雅圖，禮拜二召開的記者會中，Shively宣佈Diego Pellicer將成為第一家醫療與成人使用相關的跨國大麻零售品牌。 「各位先生與小姐，這是一個在歷史上獨一無二的時刻」Shively 說道：「有如柏林之牆般大麻禁令已十分脆弱，我們說話的同時，它更在崩壞中。」

Despite the fact that “the silence from our nation’s capital has been deafening,” and tons of uncertainties concerning the legality of his planned operations, Shively said that the acquisition of several professional cannabis dispensaries are in the works for Diego Pellicer, and that soon it will be a well-known retail brand along the West Coast.

儘管國家首都的沉默早已震耳欲聾，且還有許多關於他計畫中的操作的合法不確定性，但Shively說數家權威診療所的大麻來源已與Diego Pellicer接洽，很快的，Diego Pellicerr將在西岸成為具有盛名的零售品牌。

The biggest controversy is that there are also international plans for the brand. Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox appeared next to Shively on Thursday, explaining that because the black market for drugs has caused violence and crime throughout Latin America, he was in favor of strictly regulated legal marijuana in the U.S.

最大的爭議在於該品牌有跨國計畫，墨西哥前總統Vicente Fox也在Shively之後於星期二露面，說明由於毒品黑市在拉丁美洲造成了暴力與犯罪，他贊同美國嚴格限制大麻合法性。

“In Mexico, we welcome this initiative, because the cost of the war [on drugs] is becoming unbearable,” Fox said. He noted how the illegal drug market has hurt tourism and other Mexican businesses, and caused the deaths of thousands of people. “All this because our neighbor to the north represents such a gigantic consumer market” for marijuana. While he voiced many concerns about how marijuana laws and regulations would be enforced, and he stressed that all sorts of details would have to be negotiated to ensure safety and compliance, Fox’s appearance alone at the press conference was basically an endorsement of some kind of marijuana trade agreement between Mexico and the U.S.

「在墨西哥，我們很歡迎這主動的法案，因為毒品戰爭的花費已無法支撐」FOX說道，他提到毒品市場如何傷害到觀光與其他企業，並造成上千人的死亡。 這些都是因為我們在北方的鄰居代表一個巨大的大麻市場，他也提到許多關於大麻法與限制如何被強制執行的擔憂，他也強調全部的細節將需要再協商以保證其安全與承諾，Fox在記者會上的出現，基本上是某種美國與墨西哥大麻交易條約的背書。

Critics point out that Shively’s bold vision has an extremely long way to go before he’s able to create a viable business, let alone until his stores start producing millions in theoretical profits. “He needs to attract backers, to intimidate competitors, and to accustom people to the idea of mass marketing in the marijuana industry,” one member of the Seattle Times editorial board pointed out. “National branded marijuana has to go from being a farfetched idea to an ordinary idea, which means people have to think about it for a while.” The international trade aspect only makes Shively’s plans more complicated.

有人批評說Shively大膽的設想在他能夠創造可行的企業、並開始產出百萬元理論上的利潤前，都是空談。 「它需要吸引支持者去恫赫競爭者，並讓人們習慣大麻的大眾行銷」，一位西雅圖時報的編輯指出。 國際大麻品必須從一個牽強的想法變成一個正常的點子，也就是說人們要多思考一下，國際交易方面只會讓Shively的計畫變的更複雜，

If his dream does become reality, though, Shively will have created something along the lines of a Starbucks for weed. The company prefers another parallel: “We will offer a premium-quality, hand-crafted product,” the Diego Pellicer website states. “Think of us as the ‘Davidoff of marijuana,’ with great attention given from genetics to the finished product.” (For those, like me, who’d never heard of Davidoff, it’s a brand of high-end tobacco products.) Taiwan-based Next Media Animation referred to Shively himself as the “Bill Gates of bud” in a goofy “news” video.

如果他的夢想成真，Shively 將會創造類似大麻星巴克的東西，但公司更喜歡另一種－「我們提供優良、手工產品」，Diego Pellicer網站中說道；「想想我們是大麻裡的大衛杜夫（菸草中的高級品牌），拿著著從基因裡就引人注目的產品」。　台灣壹傳媒在冷笑話新聞中將Shively本身歸類於發芽比爾蓋茲。

Shively sees Diego Pellicer’s core customers not as young pot smokers, but as older, wealthier enthusiasts who’ll pay top dollar for a premium product. “We’re focused on Baby Boomers — basically wealthy Baby Boomers,” Shively told a Seattle TV station. “It’s a $100 billion industry in search of a brand. Never in the history of capitalism — forget America, in the world — has such a giant vacuum existed.”

Shively將Diego Pellicer核心市場設定於有年紀且富裕、願意為了高品質花大錢的熱愛者，而非年輕菸客。 「我們著重在嬰兒潮出生且富裕的人」，Shively告訴西雅圖電視台：「在品牌研究中，這可是個千億的產業，在資本主義歷史上從未出現過的。 忘了美國吧，在其他地方可是有巨大的空白市場存在呢。」

Despite Shively’s supposed longstanding family ties to marijuana, smoking pot is fairly new to the budding entrepreneur. He explained to the Puget Sound Business Journal that, coming of age in the 1980s of “Just say no,” and “This is your brain on drugs,” he steered clear of the drug. About a year and a half ago, however, a colleague at Microsoft (and frequent pot smoker) convinced Shively to give it a try. Here’s how Shively described the experience:

儘管Shively假設大戶人家對大麻、菸草的關聯，對這新進企業來說還相當的新，他對Puget Sound Business Journal解釋：「對於1980年代的”說不”與”這就是吸毒的影響，他遵循得是藥物的正面」。大約是一年半前，一個在微軟的同事說服Shively試試看，而這就是Shively如何形容他的體驗。

“I tried it and I absolutely loved it. It’s like I was having the most amazing creative brainstorms. And (I was) seeing life and situations and possibilities in just a whole new light. It was like living in a whole new dimension. So I started consuming it about once a month, and I started sharing with people the experiences I was having, so I sort of became an amateur evangelist of cannabis.”

我試用了它而且我確實愛上它，好像我在進行有史以來最棒的腦力激盪。 僅在一道光中看了人生、狀況、各種可能性，就好像活在另一個全新的次元中。 所以我大約每個月用上一次，並且開始與人分享我的體驗，我成了一種業餘的大麻福音傳播者。

Shively’s enthusiasm for marijuana didn’t stop there. As more states passed laws approving the use of medicinal cannabis, and as Washington and Colorado voters gave the OK to legislation for recreational marijuana, Shiveley saw tremendous business opportunities. He’s regularly quoted saying that his retail pot operation will “mint more millions than Microsoft.”

Shively對大麻的熱忱並未停住，隨著更多州允許使用藥用大麻，且華盛頓與科羅拉多選民同意娛樂大麻的立法，Shiveley 看到了巨大的商機，他常常說他得大麻零售將會比微軟印更多錢。

What’s more, Shiveley isn’t satisfied simply with the idea that cannabis should be legal because it’s harmless. He believes pot is genuinely good for you: “I’m convinced that within five years, marijuana will come to be regarded as a health food,” he said.

並且，Shiveley並不對大麻因無害合法而輕易滿足，他相信大麻對人們有真誠的好處。 「我將在五年內說服大家，並讓大麻被認為是健康的食物。」Shiveley說。

In which case, Shiveley is hoping to run the world’s biggest chain of an all-new breed of very special health food stores.

在這個例子裡，Shiveley希望營運一間世上最大且全新種類的特殊食品商店。