Posted on 10/23/2021 9:54:17 AM PDT by mylife
California’s cannabis market is booming nearly five years after voters legalized recreational weed. But there’s a catch: the vast majority of pot sales are still underground.
Rather than make cannabis a Main Street fixture, California’s strict regulations have led most industry operators to close shop, flee the state or sell in the state’s illegal market that approaches $8 billion annually, twice the volume of legal sales.
Local government opposition, high taxes and competition from unlicensed businesses are complicating California’s push to build a thriving legal market. Many of those factors are baked into California law, including rules allowing city leaders to shut out licensed cannabis enterprises. Meanwhile, the state has relaxed penalties against illegal operations in the name of racial justice.
Infighting between industry groups and lobbying dysfunction in Sacramento have stalled potential legislative fixes, with no clear end in sight. The scale of those problems has California’s iconic cannabis industry — the legal side, at least — lagging behind other states that have regulated the market.
“You don't have a real cannabis industry if the dominant portion of it has no interest in being legal,” said Adam Spiker, executive director of the Southern California Coalition, a cannabis trade association. “There's no other regulated industry in the world that I know of that operates like that.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The taxes are a big issue. Washington state was one of the first to legalize, and they chose to tax on the wholesale price. But there was such a gold rush of producers that within a year the wholesale price plummeted and the tax revenues fell far short.
California learned from that and charges tax on the retail side. They also regulated the heck out of the producers and distributors. Every plant is tagged and bar-coded, every yield the same and down to the retailer every baggie can be traced all the way back to the seedling it came from.
And as far as I know, there are still two separate laws on the books. There is the new legal retail weed which is 99.9% of all the shops and there is still medicinal marijuana laws which allow growers to grow not just for themselves but also on behalf of anyone who has a prescription.
“But their INTENTIONS are good, so shut up. 🤡”
No, in this case their INTENTIONS were pure greed.
Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
Lefty legislatures are hogs.
Commiefornia & much of the LEFT Coast is in a case of extreme drought, to the point where legitimate farms are curtailed in water usage. Yet, in a recent article, I read that cannabis needs a lot of water to get potent. So why isn’t the revived Governor looking to destroy the illegal farms?
Washington basically shrugged and pointed to the tax revenue they did generate and called it a success.
They don’t really enforce the laws on the black market in MJ and don’t care as long as they get paid.
Despite what the laws on the books claim it is pretty much legal and the only people who are monitored for compliance are the licensed growers.
Put the government in charge of the Sahara and soon there would be a shortage of sand.
Contrast that with the next state over
Is Recreational Cannabis Legal In Idaho?
Idaho ranks as one of the states with the most intense opposition to recreational cannabis use. Even being under the influence without possession of cannabis carries with it a possible charge.
“The Governor’s Office of Drug Policy opposes legalization of marijuana in any form other than specific marijuana-based medications that have received FDA approval.” Idaho Office of Drug Policy
Idaho law strictly prohibits recreational cannabis use, and a felony charge carries a potential fine of up to $25,000 and Jail time.
Like other states that have yet to legalize recreational cannabis, Idaho law enforces a misdemeanor charge on people in possession of under 3 ounces. This could result in up to a year of jail time and a fine of $1,000.
Lilly white leftists vote to allow legal pot. Then they discourage legal pot shops. Then they decriminalize illegal pot. Because. Racist.
What a bunch of racist morons.
Well DUA!
You had a vast underground market system in place for years...everone had there connections. You think its going to be replace with a heavy tax heave regulation government legal market system?
Cigarettes and booze are legal and they both have underground marketing systems for one reason..to bypass the government tax and regulation.. did you think pot would be different?
The moral of the story...everyone will try at some point will bypass a government regulatory system depending on how heavy its hand is
“that government is best which governs least”
Only the left could screw up the market for weed in California. Sacramento set the tax too high; legal businesses can’t compete with the black market.
There is also the fact that the sort of people who bought weed before it was legal, by definition, don’t care too much about law and order and they aren’t going to change their ways just because a law changed.
The good news is a lot of CA have come to business friendly states such as my own where they are appreciated 😎
CA growers
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