Two things of interest that the article doesn’t go into: - Taxes on weed in CA are going to be very high, ~20%. This may drive black market sales. - Online ordering through Eaze is popular, which might drive the familiar winner take all online commerce market dynamic. A lot of people don’t care for the dispensary experience. At the end of the day, this is an agricultural product, and a commodity. It was optimisticall…
"for most people weed is weed"
Never underestimate the power of marketing.
Everywhere I look in our world, marketing is king. It doesn't matter how crappy your product is, if it's marketed well, people will buy it.
One of the things left out entirely is that WA state cannabis farmers are not yet allowed to grow outdoor under sunlight, so they're facing massive price pressure in wholesale $/gram sold to processors, but still have the huge operating costs of running indoor farms with electrical bills for lighting, lighting equipment, ventilation, climate control etc. I honestly don't understand this, since it is a lot less expens…
I think (speculation based on some light reading) the WA indoor/outdoor split is based on requiring a very high level of oversight and control on the growing operation — from what I understand, WA processes have per-plant requirements.
Put roughly, it’s a lot harder to smuggle 5 plants out of a climate- and access-controlled building than it is to toss a bundle of foliage over a fence.
I live in WA, and have since before the legalization efforts were passed. (I voted for it but do not partake, for various uninteresting reasons.) The approach here was based at least as much on trying to slowly open small, controlled ports in the dam as it was trying to create a viable business opportunity. The idea seems to be “there’s enough demand for a boom now either way, and we can open up later more easily than we can close down.” Honestly, bitcoin miners using super-cheap electricity might be a greater concern for the government, at the moment.
Two things of interest that the article doesn’t go into: - Taxes on weed in CA are going to be very high, ~20%. This may drive black market sales. - Online ordering through Eaze is popular, which might drive the familiar winner take all online commerce market dynamic. A lot of people don’t care for the dispensary experience. At the end of the day, this is an agricultural product, and a commodity. It was optimisticall…
Taxes on weed in CA are going to be very high, ~20%. This may drive black market sales. WA’s taxes are ungodly high for weed (EDIT: w/o looking it up, more than 20%, that’s for sure). Didn’t seem to slow down things much. A new store just opened closer to the house, and I don’t know of a single store that has closed. Personally, I’m more than willing to pay the “convenience fee” to just drive down the road any time I…
I don't have any data on WA's black market vs white market, but I do have some anecdata: the thriving community of illicit entrepreneurs hanging out by the U District Jack in the Box has completely vanished since legalization.
(And it is quite literally a black/white thing, too - the people selling weed in shops are pretty much uniformly white, whereas the illegal market was a lot more mixed-race.)
Holy guacamole those weed prices are off the scales! $7.50 a gram? Weed should cost about the same amount as catnip. I can buy 4 oz of catnip for $8 on eBay. That's over 100g, about 8 cents a gram.
Catnip is sold as leaves and stems, but marijuana is usually sold as the flowers. The percentage waste is much higher. And catnip does not require careful segregation of male and female plants to avoid unwanted seed production.
Those taxes on weed don't look bad compared to what I think is the current equivalent product with even higher taxes - cigarettes - how is the situation different in your view?
There’s a much more robust black market already in place for marijuana than for cigarettes. Washington has all the same products and is right next door, and taxes at 3% [1]. Also at least in CA municipalities are adding their own taxes, so the distance you need to travel to enable black market arbitrage might not be much. 1 - https://dor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/Docs/Reports/2...
The WA tax on marijuana is far higher than 3% -- there's a 37% excise tax[1] and then additional local sales taxes may be applied as well.
> Some heavy users care about certain strains and the like, but I have a feeling that for most people weed is weed. As recently as 5-6 years ago, I would have agreed with this sentiment. These days, however I think this mentality is no longer a responsible one to propagate. Today's cannabis is, in general, much more potent than it used to be. And now there are ways to consume very large amounts of this extremely pote…
> Today people need to be reasonably sure that what they're getting will meet their needs, because for some one hit may send them spiraling in the totally wrong direction. A user with anxiety issues may need to entirely steer clear of sativas because they are known to cause anxiety attacks. But someone who needs to be around other people may need to avoid indicas because they are known to cause delayed responses and…
I don't think it's folklore but am not sure about scientific "proof". I also just heard on the radio yesterday an explanation that high THC content can cause those anxiety effects and the CBDs can balance it out, so in the future they might be marketed in terms of THC:CBD ratios. Interesting.
> Some heavy users care about certain strains and the like, but I have a feeling that for most people weed is weed. As recently as 5-6 years ago, I would have agreed with this sentiment. These days, however I think this mentality is no longer a responsible one to propagate. Today's cannabis is, in general, much more potent than it used to be. And now there are ways to consume very large amounts of this extremely pote…
> Today people need to be reasonably sure that what they're getting will meet their needs, because for some one hit may send them spiraling in the totally wrong direction. A user with anxiety issues may need to entirely steer clear of sativas because they are known to cause anxiety attacks. But someone who needs to be around other people may need to avoid indicas because they are known to cause delayed responses and…
It's pretty common knowledge among heavy weed smokers that those strains have those effects. Sometimes science lags a bit behind ...
> Some heavy users care about certain strains and the like, but I have a feeling that for most people weed is weed. As recently as 5-6 years ago, I would have agreed with this sentiment. These days, however I think this mentality is no longer a responsible one to propagate. Today's cannabis is, in general, much more potent than it used to be. And now there are ways to consume very large amounts of this extremely pote…
> Today people need to be reasonably sure that what they're getting will meet their needs, because for some one hit may send them spiraling in the totally wrong direction. A user with anxiety issues may need to entirely steer clear of sativas because they are known to cause anxiety attacks. But someone who needs to be around other people may need to avoid indicas because they are known to cause delayed responses and…
It is true that this has entered marijuana folklore. Some people say that the strain type makes no difference to them, and others say that it definitely does.
I'd call them guidelines rather than scientifically-verified law. Just like other psychoactive substances, results can vary wildly among individuals. My anecdotal experiences do largely line up with the folklore, for whatever it's worth. It goes beyond cannabis, too. For me, drinking gin can be very dangerous because for some reason I get hammered after one or two drinks, whereas drinking scotch of the same proof does not affect me nearly as much.
> Some heavy users care about certain strains and the like, but I have a feeling that for most people weed is weed. As recently as 5-6 years ago, I would have agreed with this sentiment. These days, however I think this mentality is no longer a responsible one to propagate. Today's cannabis is, in general, much more potent than it used to be. And now there are ways to consume very large amounts of this extremely pote…
> Today people need to be reasonably sure that what they're getting will meet their needs, because for some one hit may send them spiraling in the totally wrong direction. A user with anxiety issues may need to entirely steer clear of sativas because they are known to cause anxiety attacks. But someone who needs to be around other people may need to avoid indicas because they are known to cause delayed responses and…
THC inhibits the GABA neurotransmitter. GABA is responsible for the "calmness" factor in the brain. Low levels of GABA cause anxiety, paranoia, etc. Certain strains have different terpenes profiles. Terepenes are responsible for the aroma of the flower. Some terpenes change the way THC is absorbed, including preventing the inhibition of the THC GABA effect, which is why terpenes are also responsible for the aromatherapy of a strain. Strains have different terpene profiles based on their genetic makeup.
Two things of interest that the article doesn’t go into: - Taxes on weed in CA are going to be very high, ~20%. This may drive black market sales. - Online ordering through Eaze is popular, which might drive the familiar winner take all online commerce market dynamic. A lot of people don’t care for the dispensary experience. At the end of the day, this is an agricultural product, and a commodity. It was optimisticall…
Cigarettes cost about $0.10 a pack to manufacture so maybe $0.50 price for highly marketed brands. Price these days, with the added tax and sudo-tax lawsuit settlement, $5-$10 a pack. About 10x so 1000% tax or so. 20% seems mild especially considering normal sales tax in CA is around 10%.
I don't see a fundamental reason the cost of weed won't be around the price of tobacco in a fully legalized and big-ag growing environment. 5-10 years?