Illegal Pot Increases in CA

[Ben]

Interesting article. Unlike neighboring OR, CA is seeing an increase in black market pot after legalization. I'm too lazy to look at the taxes for legal sellers in each state, but I can't think of another reason besides higher prices and costs of regulation in the legal market.

Apparently OR has a massive surplus of the legal stuff. I've been reading local news stories that pot shops in Ontario, OR have the parking lots mostly full of Idaho (where the Governor just said no legal pot on his watch) license plates.

Funny that the legal sellers are demanding that the cops get busy. I wonder how many of them were illegal sellers themselves just a couple of years ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/us/marijuana-california-legalization.html

[Northwoods]

Funny that the legal sellers are demanding that the cops get busy. I wonder how many of them were illegal sellers themselves just a couple of years ago.

Near enough to call it all of them.  At least the growers and retail shop owners.  Probably lots of drones at the shops that only got into selling once it was legal.

[Jamisjockey]

Of course California *expletive deleted*ed up selling weed.
High taxes, high permitting and startup fees, extremely stringent QC requirements. 

Great series on CA's pot industry called "murder mountain" on Netflix.

[HankB]

If I were a California druggie, (or Colorado, or any of those other drug meccas) I'd be MUCH more likely to start growing my own weed rather than pay Cali taxes on the stuff in the pot shops.

[K Frame]

According to an article last year from Leafy magazine, California's price per gram (figuring in all taxes, etc.) isn't the highest -- Nevada's is. That's wholesale, but it should fairly well mirror to final price.

This is the take away...

"Nevada’s wholesale prices are the most expensive at $4 per gram, followed by California at $2.43, Colorado at $1.93 and Oregon at just $1.33 per gram wholesale."

https://www.leafly.com/news/industry/cannabis-price-collapse-putting-billions-in-consumers-pockets

[230RN]

Of course California *expletive deleted*ed up selling weed.
High taxes, high permitting and startup fees, extremely stringent QC requirements. 

Great series on CA's pot industry called "murder mountain" on Netflix.

Chuckle chuckle.  Sounds like gun retail in that state.  I wonder if the residents will ever see the parallels.

Chuckle chuckle.

Terry

[dm1333]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-06/which-states-have-highest-taxes-marijuana

The linked article covers the other expenses beyond sales tax.  It also notes that California has black market sales about twice as large as legal sales.  Had California politicians read the study they commissioned (Rand Center for Drug Policy Research???) they might have been prepared for the huge black market and the effect that has had on collected taxes.