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6 killings in likely cannabis dispute spotlight violence and risk in California’s illegal pot market
KSBW ^ | 2/1

Posted on 02/08/2024 3:59:03 PM PST by nickcarraway

The slayings of six men last week at a remote desert crossroads that authorities believe stemmed from a soured illegal cannabis deal spotlighted a longstanding problem in California: a thriving underground marijuana market despite years of legal sales that were expected to stamp it out.

The killings provided a tragic reminder of the violence that can come with illicit cannabis activity, including unlicensed growing operations, brash robberies from legal businesses and furtive illegal shipments to out-of-state vendors.

“The violence is getting worse. The stakes are getting higher,” said dispensary owner Jerred Kiloh, who also heads the United Cannabis Business Association, a Los Angeles-based trade group. He said many of the organization’s members have seen their dispensaries robbed one or more times, sometimes by the same thieves.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS:
It's a mostly peaceful drug.
1 posted on 02/08/2024 3:59:03 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

There’s a “murder mountain” up in Humboldt [famous for their devil’s flower] where druggies find work at marijuana grow sites. Many, many people, mostly young white druggies, go missing while on the job. The legalization of pot in CA has not done anything to stem the violence - easy to grow, easy to steal, profit margins in the hundreds of percent, and the cops are not terribly interested / don’t want to be convicted for doing their jobs. Huge black markets + easily stolen valuable product = crime.


2 posted on 02/08/2024 4:07:42 PM PST by TonyinLA (I don't have sufficient information to formulate a reasoned opinion said no lefty ever.)
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To: nickcarraway

so then...being under the influence of grass could lead to being Under the grass? good to know.


3 posted on 02/08/2024 4:08:28 PM PST by Qwapisking ("IF the Second goes first the First goes second" L.Star )
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To: TonyinLA

“Many, many people, mostly young white druggies, go missing while on the job.”

Thieves are shot dead.

Or they shoot others dead for the product.


4 posted on 02/08/2024 4:10:21 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: nickcarraway

There were very few murders involving weed in the decades before it was legal. Some yes, in Humboldt and a few areas here and there... and then around 2009 when people were able to get vacant homes during the housing crash and various Asian gangs started growing and competing with other gangs for the black market.

Now of course it is legal. And heavily taxed. And expensive. Stores have to pay retail rents instead of dealing out of small apartments. The black market may be even bigger than it was before it was legal. And possibly more profitable because the legal market has put a higher floor on the value. It’s not like bootlegging liquor, which can be relatively cheap it’s hardly worth bootlegging.

Would make an interesting study - violence, and financial cost before and after the legalization. I voted for medical marijuana but against full legalization. I was in the minority on that second vote.


5 posted on 02/08/2024 4:19:05 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: nickcarraway

“6 killings in likely cannabis dispute”

Cool, dude.


6 posted on 02/08/2024 4:32:45 PM PST by BobL (Trump gets my vote, even if I have to write him in; Millions of others will do the same)
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To: nickcarraway

Have there been any revelations on the national origins and immigration status of the murdered men or the murderers? (I’m not implying that this makes human lives more or less valuable).


7 posted on 02/08/2024 4:43:02 PM PST by Chewbarkah
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To: nickcarraway
This also competes with legal cannabis dispensaries:

Growing cannabis at home

You can grow up to 6 cannabis plants at home if you're at
least 21 years old. If you turn the cannabis into a product,
you cannot use volatile solvents like butane or propane.

What's legal - Department of Cannabis Control - CA.gov

Department of Cannabis Control (.gov)

https://cannabis.ca.gov

Cannabis is a weed, a green thumb is not necessary to grow.

8 posted on 02/08/2024 4:44:38 PM PST by chief lee runamok ( Le Flâneur @Large)
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To: nickcarraway

Weed should’ve been decriminalized and not legalized for the states to be dealing/profiting from recreational drugs.

It’s a little confusing as over supply see’s 250,000lbs being destroyed and it going for as little as low as $100/lb in the black market-according to news posted here at one point.

I get that NY, CA and ILL have successfully taxed an easily grown commodity into submission allowing for the black market to thrive-I’m not getting the disconnect between the supposed rampant over supply and minting money growing it illegally.

PS the woman whom stabbed the bf to death, claiming two bong hits made her psychotic appreciates the sentiments.


9 posted on 02/08/2024 5:01:31 PM PST by Freest Republican (This space for rent)
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To: nickcarraway

I remember years ago a local druggie murdered a co worker and burned his body. He was well spaced out when arrested in his roach infested house.


10 posted on 02/08/2024 5:03:10 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: monkeyshine; NobleFree

“Medical” Marijuana was the grease behind legalization.

Stoners came out in droves to vote for unrelated Socialist causes—which I repeatedly documented on these pages.


11 posted on 02/08/2024 5:13:20 PM PST by Does so ( 🇺🇦..."Christian-Nationalists" won WWII...Biden NOT NEXT DNC nominee!)
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To: Does so

With medical, at least you needed to see a doctor every 6 or 12 months (up to the doctor) to get the prescription renewal. There was, of course, almost no quality assurance. There were a few dispensaries that did very good due diligence in sourcing supplies and consistency of product who focused on people with cancer, glaucoma etc - but most of them were as you implied a money grab used as a backdoor to legalization. Eventually, you could get a scrip for almost any reason by doctors of dubious repute. Most doctors wanted nothing to do with it mostly because they feared losing their license or their job.

Today the dispensaries look like Apple stores. Back in the MMJ days, other than the few top notch places they were practically crack houses with cement walls and heavily armed security guards with giant safes to store the cash because they couldn’t deposit it in a bank...

New York apparently tried to do the whole DEI thing in giving out selling permits... so they legalized it, but the licensing was a mess and basically all kinds of shops ended up sell it basically black market (without an official license, but there is almost no enforcement). So instead of licensed weed dispensaries in NY you can get weed, a box of donuts, a cup of coffee, a fried egg sandwich and a lotto ticket all at the same place.


12 posted on 02/08/2024 5:32:50 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: nickcarraway

“despite years of legal sales that were expected to stamp it out..”

Only a moron would believe that.

L


13 posted on 02/08/2024 5:34:15 PM PST by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: nickcarraway

14 posted on 02/08/2024 5:41:27 PM PST by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: nickcarraway
I still don't understand why the IRS does not go after drug dealers for not declaring income. The states are also losing tax revenue on this, so large drug sale states could possibly balance their budget using the income tax on drugs.

And, could the self-employment taxes get Social Security and Medicare out of the holes they are supposed to be in?

Since we now have those 87.000 armed IRS agents, who are they pointing their weapons at?

15 posted on 02/08/2024 5:44:49 PM PST by Bernard (We honor veterans who fought to keep this country from turning into what it now is. --Argus Hamilton)
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To: nickcarraway

There have been numerous article her in SoCal detailing how wholly owned subsidiaries of the CIA, called Drug Cartels, control most of the weed market in California now.


16 posted on 02/08/2024 5:48:30 PM PST by eyeamok
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To: nickcarraway

More victimless crimes for the Libertines to carp about.


17 posted on 02/09/2024 5:24:28 AM PST by caddie
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