Growers struggle with glut of legal pot in Washington state

AP via finance.yahoo.com ^ | Jan 16, 2015 | Gene Johnson

[posterchild]

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn't have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof.

Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry.

A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from eastern Washington last fall flooded the market. Prices are starting to come down in the state's licensed pot shops, but due to the glut, growers are — surprisingly — struggling to sell their marijuana. Some are already worried about going belly-up, finding it tougher than expected to make a living in legal weed.

"It's an economic nightmare," says Andrew Seitz, general manager at Dutch Brothers Farms in Seattle.

[ConservingFreedom]

this country obviously lacks the backbone to try the Singapore solution.

Yeah, what's wrong with us, not wanting to be a police state?

[Teacher317]

Once legal there is no way to tax it.

Did you read that before you hit "post"?

[discostu]

“If they don’t tax it too much” was always the addendum to how legal pot would under cut the black market. Also keep in mind the way Washington “legalized” pot (only in state run stores, of which there are very few) was always going to present problems. There are good reasons they got rid of the state store limitations for booze, which they apparently forgot about when legalizing pot.

[uglybiker]

On the upside, the cartels are getting out of the marijuana business because they can’t compete.

Now they smuggle cigarettes.

[Beagle8U]

Yes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Maybe prohibition creates more problems than it solves. Just a thought.

[ConservingFreedom]

And you have learned nothing about drug dependency.

Pot is less dependency-forming than currently legal drugs.

[VideoDoctor]

On a business basis they are going to create a low priced black market.

No taxes.. just cash & carry.

[chrisser]

but the electrical output is a giveaway

I've read that LED grow lamps are just coming into their own. I wonder how that might affect detection via power consumption equation. They're pricey now, but that's likely to change.

[RipSawyer]

The anticipated huge profit is going up in smoke.

[grania]

The stoners didn't enact the law nor will they make the arrests

But they did advocate to have marijuana be a legal controlled drug.

[Durus]

Well said.

[discostu]

Well given that FLA is still the doctor shopping pain scrip capital of the country it could just be that certain parties didn’t want the competition.

[VRWCarea51]

Some quick math...
Dude in article claims to have sold half of his 280 lbs of weed.

140lbs x 16 ox. per pound = 2240 oz.

Article says it sells for 23-25 dollars per gram.
2240 oz. x 28 grams per ounce = 62720 grams total

62720 grams x 23 dollars per gram = 1,442,560.00

Looks like a pretty decent living to me. Perhaps they are taking too long of smoke breaks on the job? :) or they are spending their profits on munchies.

[a fool in paradise]

Licensed growers have to pay minimum wage, comply with OSHA, etc.

[ConservingFreedom]

The stoners didn't enact the law nor will they make the arrests

But they did advocate to have marijuana be a legal controlled drug.

Because the controls were necessary to overcome the opposition of rabid pot criminalizers - so blame them.

[ConservingFreedom]

Growers don't get all the retail revenue.

[tacticalogic]

I don't get all the doom and gloom carping.

They grew a bunch of pot they can't sell. That means there just aren't that many people that want it. What's not to like?

[Disambiguator]

exorcise studios

Are demons a big problem around there?

[gdani]

Yeah, what's wrong with us, not wanting to be a police state?

* Asset forfeiture without conviction
* Random police checkpoints
* Seizure of our DNA for merely being arrested
* Ongoing & unlimited surveillance of our financial transactions, social messaging, emails, texts, web searches, etc
* The largest prison population on the planet

Just a few examples of us already living in a police state. A police state that's wildly cheered by too many people who inexplicably consider themselves "conservative".