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.

[RipSawyer]

“Maybe require 10% ethanol in it....”
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That would make at least as much sense as requiring ten percent ethanol in gasoline. Not much does make sense nowadays though.

[nascarnation]

The humorous part now is that wholesale gasoline is cheaper than wholesale ethanol.

E85 is more expensive than E10.

[Ken H]

Growers struggle with glut of legal pot in Washington state

For old-timers here, did you ever think you'd see such a headline at FR?

My initial assessment => marijuana prohibitionists have lost.

[editor-surveyor]

.
If you were a big drug dealer, and the people’s dope was cutting down your bottom line, you’d be screaming too.

.

[Billthedrill]

Market forces at work. There’s a lesson here, if we will learn it.

Precisely. This is a fascinating study in the most basic economics of all, because the product goes directly from the grower to the consumer. The next piece of this is distribution. Will the big beer distributors step in? Anheuser-Busch did with respect to craft breweries it doesn't even own. The tobacco companies? Maybe, if they have any capital left after the tort attorneys got done with them.

I stopped smoking the stuff decades ago - got too busy - so I really don't have a horse in this race, but I sure love spectating.

[Patriotic1]

I have LONG though the same thing. Have a medical zone around it for people who might want to kick their habit too.

[Vaduz]

In the real world no one cares.

[ConservingFreedom]

the product goes directly from the grower to the consumer

Not according to the article: "So far, there are about 270 licensed growers in Washington — but only about 85 open stores for them to sell to."

[DiogenesLamp]

This nation learned nothing from Prohibition. Nothing.

We learned that Libertarians will constantly compare alcohol and narcotics while using the word "Prohibition" and assert they are exactly the same thing when in fact they are very very different.

Alcohol has been part of the culture as far back as human history records. It is engrained in the society and has always been so. These various narcotics, of which Marijuana happens to be one of the least dangerous, have not been widely used for any significant length of time.

They are not ingrained in the social fabric and nor should we allow them to become ingrained.

Alcohol kills about 85,000 people per year, and does untold other damage, but society has deliberately chosen to accept these losses. We should not be wanting another drug to add death and misery to the toll already exacted from the other one.

[Billthedrill]

Not according to the article: "So far, there are about 270 licensed growers in Washington — but only about 85 open stores for them to sell to."

Believe it or not, pot is sold in other places than stores. I, uh, read that in a book somewhere, yeah, that's the ticket... ;-)

[ConservingFreedom]

They are not ingrained in the social fabric and nor should we allow them to become ingrained.

What's ingrained in the social fabric doesn't appear to be under government's control: lifetime pot usage continues to grow and now stands at 44%.

[VRWCarea51]

okay even at half that it’s over 700,000 dollars for 140 lbs of weed.

[offwhite]

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

In this case, legalization is causing the problem of the U.S. exporting marijuana to countries where it remains illegal. In violation of international treaties.

Not content to merely export our sex and violence, we've now added marijuana. I'm guessing you support the legalization of all drugs, and look forward to the U.S. having the reputation of supplying heroin to children worldwide.

We're #1! We're #1!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Which came first, prohibition or repeal of prohibition?

[VRWCarea51]

They need to organize. Get Nero to subsidize it like they do corn. Use it to make ethanol.

At least that tax money spent wouldn’t be used to drive up corn and meat costs.

[gdani]

Alcohol has been part of the culture as far back as human history records. It is engrained in the society and has always been so. These various narcotics, of which Marijuana happens to be one of the least dangerous, have not been widely used for any significant length of time.

There's evidence of marijuana use going back at least a few thousand years. Here is one example -- World's Oldest Marijuana Stash Totally Busted

They are not ingrained in the social fabric and nor should we allow them to become ingrained.

About half the people in the U.S. have tried marijuana at some point or another. The overwhelming majority have done so with zero negative effects.

They were not arrested, did not drive their car off a cliff, did not lose their homes, jobs or families & did not accidentally kill their cats by putting them in a microwave.

How about this? -- we let adults decide what to put into their bodies instead of crying for Big Government to protect us from the demon weed? (I do realize such a concept is alien to those who do not favor small government).

[DiogenesLamp]

Wish they’d make it legal here in Florida. Morons here in Floriduh voted medical use down. Still trapped in the “reefer-madness” propaganda of the 1930’s.

Not sure it's propaganda. Do you have any idea how many psychotic killers are big pot-heads? Just about all of them.

Take this crowd for example.

Going back to that horrible 1969 moment frozen in time, Leslie Van Houten and the other members of the Manson Drug Cult spent their time at the Spahn Ranch where Manson was plying his disciples with marijuana and other drugs in the effort to control their minds while preaching his crazy philosophy of “Helter Skelter” (after a Beatles song) in his insane hope that he could create a race war after which he would be proclaimed the leader of America. He relied heavily on marijuana and other illegal drugs to breakdown the inborn barriers and inhibitions of his followers to cheerfully kill innocent human beings on his behalf to fulfill his insane goal.

http://ronaldlkirkish.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-manson-family-drug-cult-moment.html

[woodbutcher1963]

I think you can grow your own. I believe they allow two plants/person for personal use. However, you need to be licensed to grow and sell to someone else.

[offwhite]

"lifetime pot usage continues to grow and now stands at 44%."

Useless statistic. "Lifetime usage" (aka 'ever used') means that an individual has tried marijuana at least once sometime in their life.

The significant percentage is "past 30 days usage". These are the users. And that number is 6-7%.

[ConservingFreedom]

Do you have any idea how many psychotic killers are big pot-heads? Just about all of them.

Your dozen or so examples don't prove your claim.

Here's one that can be easily proven: Do you have any idea how many pot users are psychotic killers? Just about none of them.