What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed? • Hacker News Board

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#41

Post by slapfrog » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 2:58 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #40

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #23

> A recent survey conducted by Abacus Data for Medical Cannabis Canada found that those who access medical cannabis legally pay on average 34 percent more for their medicine than if they bought from the unregulated market. I’m unfamiliar with the weed market in general, but it seems like this problem is self-inflicted. They’re simultaneously oversupplied and overpriced. Lower prices and both problems sort themselves…

> those who access medical cannabis legally pay on average 34 percent more for their medicine than if they bought from the unregulated market. I mean, that’s true with most things isn’t it? If you buy meat from the dodgy guy in a pub then it’s cheaper. Bloke selling televisions from a van? Cheaper. Cigarettes from a corner store that have been imported from a low tax country? Cheaper. Getting the electric/gas done in…

> Cigarettes from a corner store that have been imported from a low tax country?

Probably just smuggled across state lines. Bought in a state with low taxes, then sold in a state with high taxes. The store pockets the taxes instead of passing them along to the state, which it can do because the cigarettes being sold were smuggled so the high-tax state doesn't have any record of them existing.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#42

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:00 PM UTC

latchkey wrote: post #37

This was easy to predict. Anyone who's been in the industry knows that there is not only not enough demand, but it is also seasonal. Other than the heaviest users, people don't consume 365 days out of the year, they go through phases. If you grow weed year round in high tech facilities that maximize production, you're going to just have massive piles of it that you cannot unload. Making it legal didn't really create…

I sort of question the framing here? Not yours, but the article's. There is exactly enough demand, because however much people want of a mostly harmless plant is how much people should want of that plant. Nobody turning a profit should be no surprise: farmers barely turn a profit either, because selling commodities is not a means of getting rich quick. Considering how low-risk buying pot was before legalization, it boggles the mind why anyone thought there would be a huge growth in consumption, especially when the legal product is priced so much higher that it might as well still be illegal.

As far as why such a low fraction of transactions are in the legal market: the only way to move pot transactions out off the black market would be to either make it substantially as convenient to buy it legally, or to dramatically increase enforcement against black market transactions at the same time that weed was legalized. It seems Canada did neither.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#43

Post by Clewza313 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:02 PM UTC

NullPrefix wrote: post #31

codetrotter wrote: post #9

A billion grams. A million kilograms. A thousand tonnes. …one kilotonne?

A thousand tonnes is ambiguous because you cannot know if it's metric tonnes or not. A billion grams is unambiguous, because a billion prefix for the regular reader would mean pretty much the same as infinity. The 0.0000001 as the multiplier after billion prefix doesn't discount that, because you still have to read the billion out loud.

Oddly enough, "one billion" can mean different amounts in different countries:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#44

Post by slapfrog » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:02 PM UTC

SECProto wrote: post #25

jacquesm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada has a ton of such cartels, the egg board, the milk board, the LCBO and so on.

And most of us are very happy to support supply management! "Cartel" has very negative connotations. The issues in this article are also entirely different. edit: you forgot to mention our nefarious healthcare cartel!

> And most of us are very happy to support supply management! "Cartel" has very negative connotations.

Exactly. Having a stable supply of food is more important than having an economically efficient supply of food. Of all industries, the food industry in particular should not be left totally up to market whims.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#45

Post by delusional » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

reidjs wrote: post #26

staticassertion wrote: post #7

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality stuff, got to give feedback to the guy on the strains, chocolates, etc. Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. Legal weed is wayyyy more expensive in my experience and I dislike the experience.…

Not everyone was lucky enough to have a chill dealer. It reminds me of joe Rogans bit about how in order to buy this harmless plant you have to interact with a criminal. Oh, and commit a crime. Legalization is 100% the right thing. You can grow it yourself or get it delivered if you hate the dispensary so much.

> It reminds me of Joe Rogans bit about how in order to buy this harmless plant you have to interact with a criminal. Oh, and commit a crime. Legalization is 100% the right thing.

I'm all for legalization but that's just a really bad take. The whole point with it being criminalized is that you SHOULDN'T buy the plant. Anyone pro criminalization would also probably not call it "harmless". Making it inconvenient and illegal is the point.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#46

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #24

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really the worst kind of shit. Destroy food so they can charge more, while so many starving people could use that food. I've heard it a million times, but it'll never stop shocking me to here about this idea: Keeping market value up is more important than reducing starvation.

But that happens in the US as well? See all the stories about farmers dumping milk during the pandemic.

I thought the milk destruction during the pandemic happened because the processing facilities for the milk were closed and there was no way otherwise to use the raw milk? I.e. we can't stop producing it, because cows need to be milked, but raw milk is useless without further processing.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#47

Post by stef25 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

What's the advantage of handing out these licenses to companies that will then be run like a Silicon Valley start-up?

Why not just allow dispensaries to grow a small amount of their own stuff on premise, say 20Kg / month? Limit each customer to a 5g purchase. You just need a proper space and half a dozen staff (if that). No need for massive investments and all this maxed-out capitalist accounting trickery.

Legalisation should put dealers out of business on day 1. There's no way I'm going to engage in criminal activity, texting a dealer and waiting on a street corner if I can just walk over to a bar and buy what I need, super chill like it is in Holland.

Unbelievably sad they managed to screw it up so badly.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#48

Post by dcolkitt » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

staticassertion wrote: post #7

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality stuff, got to give feedback to the guy on the strains, chocolates, etc. Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. Legal weed is wayyyy more expensive in my experience and I dislike the experience.…

On a gram for gram basis, legal weed may be more expensive. But most people don’t appreciate that legal weed is significantly more potent. (Not to mention the health benefit of smoking less plant material.)

The average THC content in illegal states is around 10%. High quality legal strains regularly clock in above 25%. So even if you’re paying twice as much per gram, you’re getting a better deal per mole of THC.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#49

Post by ryanlol » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #16

staticassertion wrote: post #7

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality stuff, got to give feedback to the guy on the strains, chocolates, etc. Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. Legal weed is wayyyy more expensive in my experience and I dislike the experience.…

Here in the Netherlands tax for weed is really high. 50% if I recall correctly. Not sure I hate the idea -- at least tax money is put to very good use. But for those for whom it's more than merely recreational (e.g.: medicinal use), I wish they'd sell a tax-free version. Too prone to abuse I guess. However, heading to a coffeshop[1] isn't a big deal. It's a person behind the stand, you pic what you want from a menu,…

> they've NEVER asked me for an id at any of these places

Nobody ever carded me in Amsterdam coffee shops when I was 14-15, I don’t think it’s a common practice.

Re: What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

#50

Post by KMnO4 » Sat, Aug 07, 2021, 3:07 PM UTC

staticassertion wrote: post #7

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality stuff, got to give feedback to the guy on the strains, chocolates, etc. Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. Legal weed is wayyyy more expensive in my experience and I dislike the experience.…

When it was legalized in Canada, the legal prices were pretty bad. There were also restrictions on only allowing the sale of flower (ie no edibles or concentrates IIRC).

Since then, the government has pulled up their socks. The prices are competitive, the quality is fantastic, and the doses are accurate (as opposed to a “300mg edible” actually having anywhere from 50-500mg THC).

As a result, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t buy from legal dispensaries. There still exist some grey area mail order services, but the concept of “texting your dealer” is largely extinct.