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Domain Squatters Grab Marijuana URLs, Ahead of Prop 19 Vote

by Amar Toor on October 29, 2010 at 06:30 AM

marijuana on the computerMarijuana enthusiasts have never exactly been known for their lightning-quick speed, but as Californians prepare to vote on a measure that would legalize the drug, many have been rushing to the Internet to secure themselves marijuana-related domain names.

The logic behind the rush is pretty straightforward: legalized weed constituting a brand new kind of marijuana industry. And a new marijuana industry, of course, would need appropriately sticky website names. "Marijuana domain name values will fly off the charts once Prop 19 passes," says Kevin Faler, a 49-year-old former police officer who has joined the online gold rush. He tells the New York Times, "I'm hoping to make enough money to buy a condo in Morocco. That's how big it's going to be." And Faler has certainly left no stoner stone unturned. He's already purchased more than 1,000 weed-related domain names, including icecreammarijuana.com, marijuanapastry.com, and potfordogs.com -- because, as he astutely points out, "dogs get cancer, too."

Faler says he usually grabs any potential domain that pops into his head late at night, but 21-year-old squatter Jordan Zazzara takes a (marginally) more calculated approach to the name game. Zazzara uses what he calls a "geo-targeted" strategy, which combines the names of California cities with words like "marijuana," "weed," "ganja," "bud" and "cannabis." So far, he's collected 100 different domains, at a cost of about $7 to $10 each. But Zazzara's looking at the domains as a slow-burning investment, and won't be relinquishing control of them anytime soon. "I'll sit on them for as long as I have to," he tells the Times. "And when marijuana is an accepted thing like alcohol, which it eventually will be, these things will be worth a lot."

Ultimately, though, Zazzara's hypothesis rests upon the assumption that California actually legalizes marijuana. Recent polls show that a slight majority of Californians oppose Prop 19, although most young voters and Democrats support it. And even if the measure is passed, there's no guarantee that the federal government won't get involved to override it.

Political uncertainty aside, investing in a still-illegal marijuana business could end up paying serious dividends in the long run. In 2004, a New Jersey company paid $1 million for marijuana.com, and has reportedly refused recent offers for more than $2 million. Even if Prop 19 never sees the light of day, it certainly seems like there's still plenty of green to be made from green.

Tags: california, Cybersquatting, DomainNames, drugs, Investment, legalization, marijuana, money, politics, Prop19, Proposition19, top, url, web, website

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