Idaho wants some of that Oregon pot money

[MillCreek]

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/oregon-towns-marijuana-boom-yields-envy-in-idaho/

Running a pot shop near the Idaho border sounds profitable.

[Ben]

Yeah, we don't want the problems that go with the money. What's happening in Ontario since the pot shops moved in is a travesty. The city council there should be ashamed of themselves for selling out their residents to crime and crazy street people for some cash.

This has been brought up here before and I've mentioned that I used to leave my car unlocked most anywhere in Ontario. Now there's nowhere that I don't lock it, and the crazy street person population has gone up like 1000% in the four years the shops have been there.

[HankB]

If I were a druggie in a place where pot was legal and I wasn't too addled to think (yet), I'd be MUCH more inclined to grow my own weed, avoiding the markups and taxes in the pot shops. And I'd probably have a little illicit side business selling at a modest markup - undercutting the pot shops - to all my trustworthy dope smoking friends.**



** - trustworthy dope smoking friends    

[Ben]

If I were a druggie in a place where pot was legal and I wasn't too addled to think (yet), I'd be MUCH more inclined to grow my own weed, avoiding the markups and taxes in the pot shops.

I forget if it's OR or WA, but the coastal blue gov of one (or maybe both of them) is pissed off about all the illegal pot growing going on after it was made legal, specifically because of the lost revenue. IIRC, illegal growing may have actually increased.

[Tuco]

I know a dude who was a grower back before it was legal here in Michigan. Dude walks his dogs near my house and we talk when we see each other. From what I can tell, dude did low volume, high quality, and very limited end user sales.
Whatever.
Dude says that since its been legalized he's out of business.  Maryjane dispensary development was so aggressive that the market became saturated. A low volume production run costs dude more than what the potshops sell it for.
I smoked reefer once, when i was in College in 1986.  It was 40 dollars for a light quarter oz. bag, 5-6 grams if we were lucky.
Evidently this modern commercial legal jazz cabbage is terribly more potent. Today's prices at the local dispensaries (its online, I looked it up, and they deliver) are 70-100 dollars for 28 certified grams - less than half what it was 35 years ago.

[MillCreek]

I forget if it's OR or WA, but the coastal blue gov of one (or maybe both of them) is pissed off about all the illegal pot growing going on after it was made legal, specifically because of the lost revenue. IIRC, illegal growing may have actually increased.

I have certainly read in the media about the Washington state government having conniptions on this.  Currently, there seems to be a real glut of marijuana on the marketplace and prices are falling significantly, such that some say they cannot stay in business.

[AZRedhawk44]

If I were a druggie in a place where pot was legal and I wasn't too addled to think (yet), I'd be MUCH more inclined to grow my own weed, avoiding the markups and taxes in the pot shops. And I'd probably have a little illicit side business selling at a modest markup - undercutting the pot shops - to all my trustworthy dope smoking friends.**



** - trustworthy dope smoking friends    

That's pretty much how it works among the folks I know who toked up prior to the legalization.  They don't want to support the taxes and the profiteering off of what used to be illegal, and they make an effort to get black or grey market stuff even though there's a rec pot shop no more than 3 miles from your home nowadays most of the time.

That's biased by them being mostly AnCaps, libertarians, or some other variant of anarchist... they all have a very heavy distrust of the State.

[HankB]

I forget if it's OR or WA, but the coastal blue gov of one (or maybe both of them) is pissed off about all the illegal pot growing going on after it was made legal, specifically because of the lost revenue. IIRC, illegal growing may have actually increased.

I remember hearing something about that too. If possession and use isn't illegal, who's to tell if the joint you're smoking was taxed or not?

In a related issue - producing a legal but regulated product yourself to avoid taxes and markups - has anyone else seen the long-running TV show on the Discovery Channel, Moonshiners?

First off, the show itself, Moonshiners, is clearly fake and staged; using an alias or not, nobody is going to get away with showing their faces on TV and bragging about Federal and state tax avoidance without being promptly apprehended. And from the couple of shows I watched, a lot of what they were talking about was pure made-up BS.

But I was wondering if there actually IS a real market for actual moonshine? The last time I remember hearing about moonshiners on the TV news was in the late '60s when I was on the way to Florida for a family vacation with my folks - we'd stopped in Georgia for the night and the local TV news mentioned a moonshine bust. But that was 50+ years ago.

Is there still a market for actual moonshine today?

[charby]

Is there still a market for actual moonshine today?

Yes, folks still make shine in Iowa, some of it is good, some of it isn't so good.

People seem to buy it to say, hey come try this, I got a jar/bottle of shine. It's really not that much cheaper than buying an equivalent quantity of cheap flavored vodka or everclear.

When you can get handles of really cheap booze under $15, what's the point of moonshine?

[RocketMan]

Still some 'shine being made in North Carolina.  The folks making it are pretty secretive for obvious reasons, and vet their customers.
You can make small amounts at home for personal use, just as long as it does not leave your property.  You cannot sell it or give it away.  It must be consumed in your home.
You can also buy liquor in the local ABC stores made the same way as moonshine.  It's advertised as such.  There are a small number of moonshiners in the state that went legit, got licensed and sell their wares via the ABC stores.  Some of it is pretty good.  Found some "apple pie" a while back that I liked.

[HankB]

. . . You can make small amounts at home for personal use, just as long as it does not leave your property.  . . .

I knew the "head of household" could make wine and beer at home legally (up to 200 gallons/year, IIRC) but I didn't know they could make distilled spirits.

In the years after the fuel embargo in the early 1970s there was a push to allow farmers to make "fuel grade ethanol" and the regulators were tearing their hair out trying to figure out how to keep some of it from being diverted into moonshine.

[cordex]

You can make small amounts at home for personal use, just as long as it does not leave your property.  You cannot sell it or give it away.  It must be consumed in your home.

I don't think that's accurate.

My parents were given some moonshine back in the early '90s from a family friend.  This was in West Virginia, so no big shock.  That was the last time I remember seeing any.

[RocketMan]

I don't think that's accurate.

My parents were given some moonshine back in the early '90s from a family friend.  This was in West Virginia, so no big shock.  That was the last time I remember seeing any.

Interesting.  I had read a while back that it was legal in the state of NC for personal use.  Looking it up just now it would appear to be illegal by state law.  Either I read something that was inaccurate, or I misdisremembered.  It's illegal under federal law, as well.

[Angel Eyes]

Found some "apple pie" a while back that I liked.

"It was already in the glass, not in the jar."

[Northwoods]

Unless it’s changed in the last couple years home distillation is still illegal on the federal level.  Whether any states have decriminalized it I’m not sure.

If it were legalized I’d get a still and start making my own spirits.

[dogmush]

Illegal shine is still pretty common all over the south.  You will have to know someone that knows someone,  but it's not that hard to get if you want some.  I wouldn't drink random shine I didn't know the source of for the same reason I don't shoot gunshow reloads. It's not difficult to do, but you can scew it up and the results of a screwup suck for the end user.

There's also plenty of legal taxed Moonshine available in liquor stores.

[RoadKingLarry]

I knew who and where to get it from in the '70s, some of those people are still around and I would bet money all I'd have to do is ask and have the money in hand.