Legal weed in trouble in California, illegal weed is taking over

[Otis Mayfield]

Video about the downfall of legal weed in California and resurgence of illegal weed.

Decriminalization is part of the problem as are taxes.

Did you foresee this?

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

Proof that government can in fact fuck up a wet dream.

 

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

You don't give them enough credit.

The gov't can fuck up the unfuckable unupable.

 

[pknopp]

High taxes causing people to go elsewhere? Yes, it was long predicted. If I smoked and if my state made it legal, I'd just grow my own.

 

[DudleySmith]

lol but legalizing that crap was supposed to Save Da Cuntry N Stuff,and like dude, it's a 'miracle drug', cures everything.

 

[petro]

If the Black market can bear lower prices over highly taxed legal goods, it will become the dominant market.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

So the cartels were going to be put out of business.

I said this would happen all along.

 

[Polishprince]

Video about the downfall of legal weed in California and resurgence of illegal weed.

Decriminalization is part of the problem as are taxes.

Did you foresee this?

I predict that this will happen anywhere that grass is legalized, and local politicians are greedy by taxing and regulating it.

Political greed backfires, and provides opening for gangsters to make money, just like it does in the cigarette market.

Between counterfeit tax stamps, bricks of grass falling off of trucks as well as just old fashioned smuggling, the black market is in better shape than ever.

If politicians were serious about this, they would just tax grass at the ordinary sales tax rates and sell it at Walmart and other major retailers, putting it on the shelves next to the cookies and chips.

 

[initforme]

It's time for full federal legalization. It's rampant and Americans need it. They're overworked, underpaid, and stressed.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Ir make phrophetic Milton Friedman's quote about government running the Sahara out of sand

 

[toobfreak]

Video about the downfall of legal weed in California and resurgence of illegal weed.

How do you have illegal weed when grass is legal there?

Oh yeah--- the illegal weed just ain't good for the environment!!!

 

[DudleySmith]

How do you have illegal weed when grass is legal there?

Oh yeah--- the illegal weed just ain't good for the environment!!!

They use a lot of electricity growing that crap, something like 37,000+ Kw hours versus a normal American household usage of 30 Kw hours over the same time period.

Power Consumption for Cannabis Growers - ElectricityPlans®

Grow room electricity for cannabis is 1% of all US power consumption. Find out why marijuana uses so much electricity. Legal in 31+ states.

electricityplans.com

According to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC), indoor commercial cannabis production (also known as a cannabis grow room) can consume 2,000 to 3,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per pound of product.

What’s the Cost of Electricity to Grow Cannabis?​

Let’s do some quick math that shows how much you’ll spend on electricity to grow cannabis, also known as marijuana. For our example, we’ll use Massachusetts. This is one of the states where medical marijuana is legal, and electricity is deregulated. In Massachusetts, the average commercial/business price per kilowatt hour is 16.14 cents (EIA, April 2019). Burning through 3,000 kWh will run you around $484 (3,000 * .1614). According to industry resources, an ounce of marijuana in Massachusetts costs $340. That means a pound of marijuana would generate around $5,440 in retail revenue. So $484 in electricity for 3,000 kWh, to grow one pound of marijuana, generating $5,440 in retail revenue. (And don’t forget, these grow rooms are typically wholesalers, not retailers.)
That’s the amount and cost of electricity to produce just one pound of marijuana.

The criminal cost advantages:

Black-market marijuana is big business, even in states where pot's legal

Foreign gangs are finding that black-market marijuana is profitable even in states that have legalized cannabis.

www.nbcnews.com

A 'massive' marijuana network​

Federal officials allege that legal recreational marijuana states like California, Colorado and Washington, where enforcement of growing regulations is hit-or-miss, have been providing cover for transnational criminal organizations willing to invest big money to buy or rent property to achieve even bigger returns.

Chinese, Cuban and Mexican drug rings have purchased or rented hundreds of homes and use human trafficking to bring inexperienced growers to the United States to tend them, federal and local officials say.

...

In El Paso County, NBC News witnessed firsthand the damage a commercial-scale cannabis grow can do to a home otherwise built for an average American family. Growers pose as legitimate renters, and by the time authorities disrupt their operation, homes have been gutted and trashed.

"We've fallen through floors," U.S. Drug Enforcement Angecy Special Agent Randy Ladd said. "The electrical damage, they draw so much current that you'll see, in some places, the wires are fused inside of the electrical box. And — a lot of people — they don't wanna pay the high electric bills. So what they do is they take jackhammers and pickaxes and they cut through the foundation of the house, so that they could steal the power."

...
The workers often fly from China to Belgium, and from Belgium to Mexico, before making asylum claims at the border and then disappearing by the time they’re scheduled to tell their stories in court, Ladd said. Often when grow houses are raided, immigration fugitives are discovered, he said.

They wreck 10's of thousands of houses. Of course Burb Brat dopers could care less what kind of scum they're filling the pockets of.

 

[martybegan]

Video about the downfall of legal weed in California and resurgence of illegal weed.

Decriminalization is part of the problem as are taxes.

Did you foresee this?

There are two different forms of a black market. The first is one created when you make something illegal. That one has more profit, as there is no competition. The 2nd is when you over-regulate and over tax something, and the black market can provide it cheaper. That has less of a profit margin, but also less chances of violence occurring because of the smaller profit margins.

California went from the first one to the 2nd one.

 

[martybegan]

So the cartels were going to be put out of business.

I said this would happen all along.

The big ones went to other drugs, what happened is some people realized a new black market popped up because of over taxing and over regulating the legal growers and sellers.

 

[Likkmee]

Humbolt had weed in the pre-Nixon era.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

The big ones went to other drugs, what happened is some people realized a new black market popped up because of over taxing and over regulating the legal growers and sellers.

Which is exactly what I said would happen all along.

 

[Oddball]

Video about the downfall of legal weed in California and resurgence of illegal weed.

Decriminalization is part of the problem as are taxes.

Did you foresee this?

Holy fuck!....You mean to say that if you tax something, the price will be driven up to the point that you'll cause black markets?!?

Well, I'll be dipped!....Who ever could have imagined that?

 

[Oddball]

The big ones went to other drugs, what happened is some people realized a new black market popped up because of over taxing and over regulating the legal growers and sellers.

In other news, rain is wet.

 

[martybegan]

Which is exactly what I said would happen all along.

The worst part it is easily fixable by the government, lower the taxes and fees, clean up some of the regulations. An undercutting black market can't survive if they did that.

In the end it would earn them MORE money in tax revenue.

 

[Oddball]

The worst part it is easily fixable by the government, lower the taxes and fees, clean up some of the regulations. An undercutting black market can't survive if they did that.

In the end it would earn them MORE money in tax revenue.

Or you just cut the crap and allow free cultivation for anyone who wants to smoke weed...Problem solved.