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One year of legal pot sales and California doesn’t have the bustling industry it expected.
LA Times ^ | December 27th, 2018 | By PATRICK MCGREEVY

Posted on 12/27/2018 2:38:53 PM PST by Mariner

When Californians voted in 2016 to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, advocates of the move envisioned thousands of pot shops and cannabis farms obtaining state licenses, making the drug easily available to all adults within a short drive.

But as the first year of licensed sales comes to a close, California’s legal market hasn’t performed as state officials and the cannabis industry had hoped. Retailers and growers say they’ve been stunted by complex regulations, high taxes and decisions by most cities to ban cannabis shops. At the same time, many residents are going to city halls and courts to fight pot businesses they see as nuisances, and police chiefs are raising concerns about crime triggered by the marijuana trade.

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, who played a large role in the legalization of cannabis, will inherit the numerous challenges when he takes office in January as legislators hope to send him a raft of bills next year to provide banking for the pot industry, ease the tax burden on retailers and crack down on sales to minors.

“The cannabis industry is being choked by California’s penchant for over-regulation,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, a pro-legalization group. “It’s impossible to solve all of the problems without a drastic rewrite of the law, which is not in the cards for the foreseeable future.”

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; cannabis; dalegieringer; freedom; ganja; gavinnewsom; marijuana; medicine; norml; pot; wod
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To: heshtesh

In looking up how many grams were in a lid, I learned that a lid was named for the amount of grass you could scoop up with the lid of a Hellman’s Mayonnaise jar. This, naturally enough, originated in San Francisco.


61 posted on 12/27/2018 3:44:22 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: heshtesh

Sounds right. ‘My day’ was in the mid-sixties.


62 posted on 12/27/2018 3:45:39 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: SES1066
4) The legal outlets fail because their regulatory & tax overhead is much higher than the local kid on the corner who gets their stash from their friendly cartel supplier. More people stoned because it is legal but tax & regulatory revenue (already spent) is dropping. Aw gee, another utopia gone up in (POT) smoke!

I know someone in CA that explained that to me recently - he knows a guy that has been a dealer for years and his business has not been impacted by legalization.

63 posted on 12/27/2018 3:46:27 PM PST by Ben Hecks
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To: Mariner

Proof that CA is so virulently anti-business that they could take something like a guaranteed money-maker like legalizing pot and manage to screw even that up.


64 posted on 12/27/2018 3:47:04 PM PST by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: sparklite2

I remember the term well, thanks for the history lesson.


65 posted on 12/27/2018 3:47:28 PM PST by heshtesh
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To: Mariner

Can it be that there are fewer lowlifes in California than previously thought? Or is Milton Friedman again proven the man. Whenever government regulates and taxes any industry, it slows down, never gets off the ground or collapses.


66 posted on 12/27/2018 3:49:42 PM PST by allendale (.)
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To: allendale

I suppose so. But the deregulation of the airline industry saw borderline carriers go out of business.


67 posted on 12/27/2018 3:53:08 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: allendale

I’d put my money on Milton!


68 posted on 12/27/2018 3:53:15 PM PST by heshtesh
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To: Mariner

It just shows I never bought any, legal or illegally. LOL


69 posted on 12/27/2018 4:04:42 PM PST by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: KC_Lion

SOOOO—California is going to DEMAND that banks violate FEDERAL drug laws by forcing them to bank pot money?

That is going to be interesting.


70 posted on 12/27/2018 4:04:54 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: sparklite2

“...... named for the amount of grass you could scoop up with the lid of a Hellman’s Mayonnaise jar.”

Hellman’s isn’t sold in California. Here it is called “Best Foods.”


71 posted on 12/27/2018 4:11:13 PM PST by Forty-Niner (The barely bare, berry Bear formily known as Ursus Arctos Horrilibis (or U.A. Californicus))
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To: newfreep

I love the getting high on cat pee(Heavy Metal), and the WoW episode.


72 posted on 12/27/2018 4:17:32 PM PST by EEGator
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To: Responsibility2nd

The “progressives” always envision that things like legalized pot will yield a bonanza in higher tax revenues. Then they spend the money. Then the expected tax revenues never materialize. Happens every time.


73 posted on 12/27/2018 4:19:22 PM PST by fhayek
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To: Forty-Niner

It also may have been named for the capacity of a tin of Prince Albert tobacco.


74 posted on 12/27/2018 4:24:05 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: ridesthemiles

Why not? Federal laws on immigration are violated routinely, too.


75 posted on 12/27/2018 4:26:09 PM PST by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Mariner

California, such is the life of a drug dealer. Bonus, increased traffic fatalities and more drug related psychosis in the state!


76 posted on 12/27/2018 4:33:05 PM PST by 444Flyer (John 3 Revelation 20 Joshua 24:15 Time's short.)
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And formerly nice family neighborhoods that smell like the inside of a skunk’s bowels at various times of the day.


77 posted on 12/27/2018 4:37:30 PM PST by 444Flyer (John 3 Revelation 20 Joshua 24:15 Time's short.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Are you missing that people are allowed to grow six plants in their backyards?


78 posted on 12/27/2018 4:38:48 PM PST by philetus (Keep doing what you always do and you'll eventually get what you deserve)
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To: Fungi

“So potheads weren’t as smart as they thought they were. Imagine that.”

This only affects those in the business. The consumer can buy top quality pot at a very reasonable price with no legal consequences.

It’s a buyer’s market.


79 posted on 12/27/2018 4:51:49 PM PST by Ken H (2019 => The House of Representin')
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To: Mariner

Our town soaked two companies for a cool $100k each to open a medical marijuana dispensary. Mind you, the only sales which will be permitted are to those who have a medical marijuana card issued by the appropriate county. My county, there’ 12 cards total issued, in the neighboring county, they’re now up to 15 cards issued. That’s 27 customers to supposedly keep two dispensaries open and profitable.

Since one of the companies didn’t meet paperwork deadlines (and just copy and pasted from other applications), they’ve had their $100k permit revoked, with the city keeping the fee (since it was an application fee, not a permit fee...)

The other is steadily working towards completion. I think they were counting on traffic from another county to the north to keep prospects alive, but since the closest city there just approved licensing retail stores (up to 3), that is a hope that’s just going to fade away.

Meanwhile, dozens of companies continue to illegally distribute via delivery, none of which are licensed as required in the county, to the point they even have advertising billboards up.

I’ve the feeling that the remaining dispensary will open their doors, find no one there, then go whine to the city that they need to do retail sales to survive. And odds are they’ll bring their lawyers with them to ensure compliance with threat of lawsuit if they decline.

Ahh, the fun of the pot game. (Meanwhile, there’s still hundreds of medium scale pot grows in the county; it’s harder to buy liquor after 7pm than to buy pot.)


80 posted on 12/27/2018 4:55:48 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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