Ramon V. Del Rosario – College of Business
[pic 1]De La Salle UniversityRamon V. del Rosario – College of BusinessBrian’s Franchise Case 1BUS 560MTerm 1, AY 2016-2017Submitted to:Ms. Pia ManalastasSubmitted by:Bravo, JimmyMiranda, Jaemee AnneUytingban, Terence October 2016SynthesisWhat we know: Brian is an American well-off college dropout who started an indoor marijuana farm business in the United States. He bred an indoor variety of the plant, “Protoma Indica,” which became well-known He shared his expertise and his plants to partners, in return partners gave him a percentage of the profits from each crop. With the increased US government’s effort to curb marijuana in the US in the early 90’s, Brian sold his business and moved to the Netherlands where police do not enforce marijuana laws is the same way as in the US and continued his business model.  In Amsterdam, Brian developed a self-contained indoor garden operated by a computer and can be monitored from a distance thru the internet.  This way, the farmer will only visit the site to plant and harvest. In case there someone tries to break in, the computer would send a message and would then automatically destroy the garden and the computer data.
What we don’t know: It is not known if Brian himself is using marijuana as a recreation drug. It will be assumed, for the purpose of this case study, that Brian is only exploiting the business opportunity to maximize profit but he doesn’t have full knowledge of the detrimental effects of using marijuana to healthy human beings. Further assumption:Brian has come to realize the negative impact of marijuana to health and to the society in general, hence, the ethical dilemma how to go forward after relocating to Amsterdam.Point of ViewWe are taking the point of view of Brian since he is the business franchise owner.Ethical Issues InvolvedWhile selling and use of marijuana used to be legally relaxed in The Netherlands, new toleration rule was implemented in 2013 where only residents are allowed to purchase marijuana in coffee shops for personal consumption as guaranteed by their constitutional rights to decide for their own health. This raises therefore raises issues that even governments that are previously more tolerant on the sale of marijuana to the public are recognizing the need for imposing tighter restrictions proving that negative effects of marijuana can indeed outweigh the benefits of freedom of choice specifically on this issue. Ethical principles of justice, rights, virtue, human dignity & common good, general welfare, and care are therefore in question. Dutch law tolerates selling cannabis for personal, yet responsibility of ensuring sellers know who they are selling this product to. It must be stressed that it is also against the law in Amsterdam to grow cannabis plants.