How red tape and black market weed are buzzkills for California's legal marijuana industry

submitted by HeyImSancho from (self.SundogsPlace)

So legalization has made the black market of Marijuana even larger as the regulatory fees are too high for the average person to get in on the business. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-in-california-black-market-weed-buzzkills-for-california-legal-weed-industry-60-minutes-2019-10-27/

It's not just the weed business, everyday it's becoming all business is not affordable due to the forced licensing, forced insurance, and other forced regulations. Everyday, more, and more people are either going broke, or moving to the underground cash economy.

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I agree with the overall sentiment, but I just bought California weed like 20 minutes ago and the prices are dropping every month! It's a fantastic time to be a partaker in God's green herb.

I wish the licencing and certifications were optional, but I do enjoy paying a little extra for weed that has been thoroughly inspected. They do find pesticide contamination and other issues all the time. There have been recalls.

I imagine that the black market is crumbling, which is good, because there have been cartel incidents throughout the state for a long time.

[–]HeyImSancho[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think that article said do to the rampant regulation, that the black market as grown 3 fold. The licensed weed has a huge surplus, and cannot legally be sold outside of Cali.; so legal producers aren't making any profit.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Alright I read the thing.. yeah they report a 3x increase in the black market. It sounds like it's a direct consequence of the surplus. I think this is just the market settling out. Everyone got in on the gold rush, which works out great for me, but not so much for every grower. Still, I have a hard time looking at any of this as a bad thing. I'm sure my city is loving their 10%+ tax revenues and there's a store popping up on every block, providing employment, and the stores aren't even corporate conglomerates just yet.

And the cop said no jury is going to convict for illegal growing.

[–]Only71Genders 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, the cartels are getting what they deserve for decades of overpriced, pesticide laden weed. And them destroying our forests to grow it. Fuck them.