Pot Problems in Paradise

[Col Hogan]

California’s black market for pot is stifling legal sales. Now the governor wants to step up enforcement

Pot is legal...but the business is not going as planned...

As much as 80% of the marijuana sold in California comes from the black market, according to an estimate by New Frontier Data, a firm that tracks cannabis sales and trends. Analysts also found that California’s illicit pot market was valued at an estimated $3.7 billion last year, more than four times the size of the legal market.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol ... story.html

The governor is sending in the National Guard to uproot the illicit growers and tear out their crops

[89Hen]

Too bad nobody had the foresight to predict this.

[Chizzang]

California’s black market for pot is stifling legal sales. Now the governor wants to step up enforcement

Pot is legal...but the business is not going as planned...

As much as 80% of the marijuana sold in California comes from the black market, according to an estimate by New Frontier Data, a firm that tracks cannabis sales and trends. Analysts also found that California’s illicit pot market was valued at an estimated $3.7 billion last year, more than four times the size of the legal market.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol ... story.html

The governor is sending in the National Guard to uproot the illicit growers and tear out their crops

Northern California alone has been selling 5 billion dollars in marijuana a year for the past 35 years...
Those grower organizations go back to the 60's and are large scale operations
if it's down to 3.7 that is a reduction by a billion and a half

This battle in Nor Cal has been a long time coming (35 years in the making)
and is not even remotely related to legalizing marijuana

The state was hopeful the giant operations would convert to legal means - and some have
but it's hard to give up huge percentages of the profit in one legal swipe of a bill



In the article they say "allowing the black market to flourish"
Which is a creative wording...
really more like: Doing nothing to legalize the existing 5 billion dollar ongoing operations in Nor Cal
That they've been able to convert a little over a billion of it into legal marijuana is actually impressive

[kalm]

California’s black market for pot is stifling legal sales. Now the governor wants to step up enforcement

Pot is legal...but the business is not going as planned...



https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol ... story.html

The governor is sending in the National Guard to uproot the illicit growers and tear out their crops

Northern California alone has been selling 5 billion dollars in marijuana a year for the past 35 years...
Those grower organizations go back to the 60's and are large scale operations
if it's down to 3.7 that is a reduction by a billion and a half

This battle in Nor Cal has been a long time coming (35 years in the making)
and is not even remotely related to legalizing marijuana

The state was hopeful the giant operations would convert to legal means - and some have
but it's hard to give up huge percentages of the profit in one legal swipe of a bill



In the article they say "allowing the black market to flourish"
Which is a creative wording...
really more like: Doing nothing to legalize the existing 5 billion dollar ongoing operations in Nor Cal
That they've been able to convert a little over a billion of it into legal marijuana is actually impressive

Squares like Hogie and Hen crack me up.

All of what Chizzie said. It simply takes time. When it was first legal, people were still buying from dealers. Now everyone is going to stores except a few who grow their own. Just like most people buy veggies at the grocery store rather than garden. And it still blows me away at the age demographic in weed shops. I’d guess a full 3rd are over 60.

Btw, just ordered some product from Infinite CBD. The pain relief lotion is the bomb and it’s legal everywhere.

[Col Hogan]

California’s black market for pot is stifling legal sales. Now the governor wants to step up enforcement

Pot is legal...but the business is not going as planned...



https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol ... story.html

The governor is sending in the National Guard to uproot the illicit growers and tear out their crops

Northern California alone has been selling 5 billion dollars in marijuana a year for the past 35 years...
Those grower organizations go back to the 60's and are large scale operations
if it's down to 3.7 that is a reduction by a billion and a half

This battle in Nor Cal has been a long time coming (35 years in the making)
and is not even remotely related to legalizing marijuana

The state was hopeful the giant operations would convert to legal means - and some have
but it's hard to give up huge percentages of the profit in one legal swipe of a bill



In the article they say "allowing the black market to flourish"
Which is a creative wording...
really more like: Doing nothing to legalize the existing 5 billion dollar ongoing operations in Nor Cal
That they've been able to convert a little over a billion of it into legal marijuana is actually impressive

They have been selling all these years without the oversight and taxation of the government...illegal, yes...but free enterprise at its finest...

Those folks most likely are resisting all the regulations and taxes and don't want any of the other crap Newsome and his crowd foisted on the peps of Cali...

Maybe...

[89Hen]

Squares like Hogie and Hen crack me up.

All of what Chizzie said. It simply takes time. When it was first legal, people were still buying from dealers. Now everyone is going to stores except a few who grow their own. Just like most people buy veggies at the grocery store rather than garden.

You're the one that said this would be "easy". Your word, not mine. I was spot on in 2013 in the other thread when I said legalizing won't stop the black market. Hell, sounds like it's barely put a dent in it in Cali.

[Chizzang]

Northern California alone has been selling 5 billion dollars in marijuana a year for the past 35 years...
Those grower organizations go back to the 60's and are large scale operations
if it's down to 3.7 that is a reduction by a billion and a half

This battle in Nor Cal has been a long time coming (35 years in the making)
and is not even remotely related to legalizing marijuana

The state was hopeful the giant operations would convert to legal means - and some have
but it's hard to give up huge percentages of the profit in one legal swipe of a bill



In the article they say "allowing the black market to flourish"
Which is a creative wording...
really more like: Doing nothing to legalize the existing 5 billion dollar ongoing operations in Nor Cal
That they've been able to convert a little over a billion of it into legal marijuana is actually impressive

They have been selling all these years without the oversight and taxation of the government...illegal, yes...but free enterprise at its finest...

Those folks most likely are resisting all the regulations and taxes and don't want any of the other crap Newsome and his crowd foisted on the peps of Cali...

Maybe...

No doubt about it Col,
Our local Governments will never miss an opportunity to over tax and over regulate

The thing that's missing from the article - and - is actually a better story as far as pure entertainment
is the story of the Nor Cal marijuana industry before legalization

The Marin County police have been ignoring these giant pot farms for decades
and I mean pot FARMS as in acres and acres of Marijuana

it was so common album covers celebrated it

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Thank god you are here to inform us!

[Chizzang]

Thank god you are here to inform us!

I work about half the year in Marin County
I was there last week

[CID1990]

What have I said here before?

Something about by the time this is over, the pot smokers will wish the stuff was illegal again?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chizzang]

What have I said here before?

Something about by the time this is over, the pot smokers will wish the stuff was illegal again?

Probably true in Northern California...
But not so much in Washington Oregon or Colorado and certainly not on the east coast
where states look at Marijuana arrests as a revenue generating device

In Northern California pot has always been like the home distillery made grain alcohol of the south

[JohnStOnge]

To me a black market means they're doing something wrong. A black market should not be able to compete with a legal market unless they are doing something with the legal market to screw it up.

[kalm]

Squares like Hogie and Hen crack me up.

All of what Chizzie said. It simply takes time. When it was first legal, people were still buying from dealers. Now everyone is going to stores except a few who grow their own. Just like most people buy veggies at the grocery store rather than garden.

You're the one that said this would be "easy". Your word, not mine. I was spot on in 2013 in the other thread when I said legalizing won't stop the black market. Hell, sounds like it's barely put a dent in it in Cali.

What about it hasn’t been easy? You can pull up to a store and buy weed practically anywhere. Wa State is taking in tons of tax dollars. A new industry is born. Society isn’t crumbling. Life goes on.

[JohnStOnge]

Pot should be about like coffee. Seriously, it should. We don't have a black market in coffee. If we have a black market in areas where pot is legal somebody needs to look at what they're doing with the regulatory and tax structure associated with the legal market. There is NO way a black market should be able to compete with a legal pot market.

[CID1990]

What have I said here before?

Something about by the time this is over, the pot smokers will wish the stuff was illegal again?

Probably true in Northern California...
But not so much in Washington Oregon or Colorado and certainly not on the east coast
where states look at Marijuana arrests as a revenue generating device

In Northern California pot has always been like the home distillery made grain alcohol of the south

AHEM

Let me introduce you to North Carolina's Number One cash crop from around 1970 onwards-

hint: it isn't tobacco

I once saw a still on our property concealed behind a grove of pot plants

[Grizalltheway]

What have I said here before?

Something about by the time this is over, the pot smokers will wish the stuff was illegal again?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I was in college the going rate for an eighth was 50 bucks. In Washington now you can get entire OUNCE for 30.

[BDKJMU]

Probably true in Northern California...
But not so much in Washington Oregon or Colorado and certainly not on the east coast
where states look at Marijuana arrests as a revenue generating device

In Northern California pot has always been like the home distillery made grain alcohol of the south

AHEM

Let me introduce you to North Carolina's Number One cash crop from around 1970 onwards-

hint: it isn't tobacco

I once saw a still on our property concealed behind a grove of pot plants

So this wasn't accurate in 1997?
https://norml.org/legal/item/north-caro ... cash-crops

[CID1990]

AHEM

Let me introduce you to North Carolina's Number One cash crop from around 1970 onwards-

hint: it isn't tobacco

I once saw a still on our property concealed behind a grove of pot plants

So this wasn't accurate in 1997?
https://norml.org/legal/item/north-caro ... cash-crops

Most likely not. That looks like a lowball estimate, which is all it can be

Aside from how in the world anyone actually makes a hard calculation -

Marijuana's place in NC agriculture has long been measured through conventional wisdom - and in this case it is the tobacco farmers who will largely tell you that marijuana far outpaces tobacco in terms of gross profits. As anecdotal as that is, it is probably the best estimate since pot farmers arent actually being polled or measured in NC

I come from the epicenter of NC tobacco and just about every farmer I ever knew would bring it up in humorous conversation... I'm fairly sure several of them were actually growing the stuff. The small time people would just clandestinely grow it on other peoples' farms. every single year, we would find a plot on our own farm. Not occasionally, but literally every year. And we never came close to finding it all. And that's how many legitimate farmers could get away with growing the stuff - if their plot was discovered, it then belonged to someone who sneaked onto their farm and planted it.

[Ivytalk]

Pot should be about like coffee. Seriously, it should. We don't have a black market in coffee. If we have a black market in areas where pot is legal somebody needs to look at what they're doing with the regulatory and tax structure associated with the legal market. There is NO way a black market should be able to compete with a legal pot market.

Coffee, eh? Where can I find me some decaf weed?

[Gil Dobie]

What have I said here before?

Something about by the time this is over, the pot smokers will wish the stuff was illegal again?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I was in college the going rate for an eighth was 50 bucks. In Washington now you can get entire OUNCE for 30.

Been a while since I saw this market. It was $40 for an once of Columbia, $20 for domestic, Maui or Hawaiian was around $60-80 and ounce or quarters for $20.

[kalm]

Pot should be about like coffee. Seriously, it should. We don't have a black market in coffee. If we have a black market in areas where pot is legal somebody needs to look at what they're doing with the regulatory and tax structure associated with the legal market. There is NO way a black market should be able to compete with a legal pot market.

Coffee, eh? Where can I find me some decaf weed?

That's pretty much what CBD products are. There's still less research conducted than needs to be but they have potential positive benefits for several things including pain relief. A derivative has even been approved by the FDA to treat childhood epilepsy.

And there's zero THC in them so no psychoactive side effects.

Still need the TCH (I think) for treating glaucoma and chemotherapy related side effects.

[JohnStOnge]

What I'm talking about is what it should cost to produce, etc. If marijuana as a legal product is treated like any other agricultural product there is no reason for it to cost much.

[kalm]

I don’t think this thread went quite the way homies Hogan and 89 hoped it would.

[Col Hogan]

I don’t think this thread went quite the way homies Hogan and 89 hoped it would.

How did I hope it would go???

[kalm]

I don’t think this thread went quite the way homies Hogan and 89 hoped it would.

How did I hope it would go???

RE: the title of your post.

Perhaps I’m wrong and you think the benefits of legalization outweigh the minor drawbacks.

If so, I apologize.