Posted on 05/05/2022 8:26:07 PM PDT by RandFan
Heavy regulation, high taxes, and local bans combined to cripple the legal cannabis industry, which accounts for just a third of the state's pot market.
Six years after California legalized recreational marijuana, the black market still accounts for roughly two-thirds of the state's cannabis sales. Since legalization was supposed to eliminate the black market, that embarrassing situation represents a stark failure to fulfill the promise of Proposition 64, the 2016 ballot initiative that allowed recreational consumers to buy marijuana from state-licensed retailers.
Regulatory costs, high taxes, and local bans on retailers are the main factors impeding the transition to a legal market, according to a new report from Reason Foundation, the organization that publishes this website. The report, written by Geoff Lawrence, the foundation's managing director of drug policy, focuses on the latter two issues. It recommends tax relief, which Lawrence shows would be compatible with continued growth in state marijuana revenue, and incentives aimed at encouraging local governments to allow retail sales.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
They will do the same in the Senate which is why any sensible libertarian will vote against it...
Just ban pot. It should never have been legalized in the first place.
Its like how progressive politicians and their cronies “de-regulated” their electricity market.
Frustrating for anyone who believes in the free market and who would be generally sympathetic.
I won’t defend these policies.
Disagree, like free speech we need to have easily obtainable weed!
It should be free.
I have a simple solution, Lower the taxes on the legal stores.
if that cuts into the blackmarket then the sales at the legal stores should be higher resulting possibly in more revenue for the state.
Free advice for the State of Californication
“Just ban pot. It should never have been legalized in the first place.”
in which case, in california, illicit sales would increase from 67% of the total to 100% of the total ...
The House bill creates new felonies for pete’s sake !
In addition lots of other cr*p i.e licencing, taxes you name it...
I cannot support it.
I smoke two joints in the morning,
I smoke two joints at night,
I smoke two joints in the afternoon,
It makes me feel all right.
I smoke two joints in time of peace,
And two in time of war.
I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints,
And then I smoke two more.
Just legalize pot. It never should have been banned in the first place.
The cartels are pleased with the high taxes….
Bingo. That was the goal from the beginning. The consultants advising the corrupt regime in California learned from states like New York where they raised the price of cigarettes so that organized crime could deal in cigarettes stamped out of state.
The tax had to be high enough for it to be worthwhile.
...and since it's California law, it doesn't involve the Feds.
It’s not their fault, man. They were stoned...
Oklahoma screwed it up much worse.
Of *course* California ruined it with taxation—that’s what they do to everything. They’d tax the air you breathe if they could.
Libertarians were screaming ‘legalize and tax it’. I guess when they fails they’ll be screaming ‘legalize and get everyone on it for free’!
Regulations, taxation, rules, etc. You have to be on the grid for power (Indoors) on city/county water, no rivers, wells, or springs, permitting in cities and counties is extremely high. Your start-up costs can range from 100K to 300K depending on the city and county. Jerry Brown made sure that the only ones who could be successful at this are Cartels and the Big Tobacco companies. There are large grows in the Central Valley owned by Big Tobacco.
The smaller family owned growers who sell black market are being pushed out as they are now felons in a legal market. The pot stores must show where they purchased the pot and it must be through licensed legal growers.Its regulated, researched for chemicals, growers are inspected, must have insurance, health and safety inspections, etc. It’s only time before workers will be forced to join the UFW and the harvesting and trimming wages will fall to nothing.
California lawmakers saw this huge windfall on an industry with inflated prices due to being illegal. The price plummeted when they placed the regulations on it, so the state projections on tax revenue fell. So the rules added increased the revenue for government agencies. You have to be big corps to make it work.
The price has dropped to $200 a pound for average stuff to $500 a pound for top of the line. The trimmers are charging $80 a pound. The growers in Humboldt are blaming the growers in Oregon for destroying the cannabis industry in California.
Rural real estate prices are plummeting as a result of the collapse in price.
The best story I heard was from a grower who told me the dispensary had returned 500 pounds of cannabis because they could not sell it. He went to Humboldt County Air Pollution Control Board to get a burn permit - they denied it and told him “it will cause too much pollution” He told them, what do you think happens when I sell cannabis? People burn it!
They told him it didn't matter, and that he needed to compost it>
that my FRiends is California government in a nutshell
At least Marijuana would lose the imprimatur of Government dominion.
Buy it illegally, use it illegally, and deal with the illegal and harmful consequences.
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