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How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

washingtonpost.com

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Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#41

Post by DonHopkins »

alexose wrote: post #11

I live on the Oregon/California border, where a lot of growers spilled over from Humboldt County and elsewhere. I've seen a few ups and downs in the market, but nothing like what happened over the last two years. There was a moment in 2020 when more acres of weed were being grown than alfalfa . Neighbors were signing multi-year contracts to rent out their water rights. And oh, all of the terrible behavior that the ru…

>I'm in the wine world, so I suppose I have some sour grapes, so to speak. [...] $10 of fruit in a good year.

Even if the demand for grapes dries up and withers on the vine, at least you won't have a problem raisin money.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#42

Post by encryptluks2 »

alexose wrote: post #11

I live on the Oregon/California border, where a lot of growers spilled over from Humboldt County and elsewhere. I've seen a few ups and downs in the market, but nothing like what happened over the last two years. There was a moment in 2020 when more acres of weed were being grown than alfalfa . Neighbors were signing multi-year contracts to rent out their water rights. And oh, all of the terrible behavior that the ru…

Wait, why in the world would they go to Oklahoma to grow? That is like asking for trouble from the law.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#43

Post by encryptluks2 »

LBJsPNS wrote: post #22
a2tech wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Michigan now that its legal the prices have plummeted. I just saw a place advertising $100 for 2 full ounces for new recreation customers. Thats an insane deal. I'm sure its not the best stuff but its a shocking amount.

I can buy ounces all day in Portland for $20. Is it Jesus incarnate? Nope. Is it perfectly good sinsemilla that gets ya high? Yup.

Where? I live in Portland and would love to try a $20 ounce.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#44

Post by ch4s3 »

Animats wrote: post #37

So even in a supply glut, demand doesn't go up much. The supply of potential druggies is limited. That's good news.

Is that surprising? A lot of people really don’t like the experience and smoking generally has a pretty negative image culturally at the moment.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#45

Post by asdff »

rippercushions wrote: post #16

The cannabis boom seems to have been predicated largely on the assumption that it would resemble the high-end wine market, with expensive vintages, "budtenders", etc that can support lots of boutique farms and retailers. But it looks more like the future will resemble the tobacco industry, with slim profit margins and a handful of conglomerates controlling production. And in reality, for wine as well, LVMH owns many…

The difference between pretty good weed and the best weed is irrelevent when you throw the bud into your grinder, unless you are buying moonrocks (kind of like battering fried chicken, the bud is dipped in high thc% oil then kief). It's not like a whisky where you get this whole tasting experience and can taste the wood of the barrel it sat in; to my tongue at least smoke is smoke unless its the terrible brick weed that I have not seen in 15 years. Even then with so much excess product being produced by growers, moonrocks would not be expensive to produce.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#46

Post by manicennui »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #42
alexose wrote: post #11

I live on the Oregon/California border, where a lot of growers spilled over from Humboldt County and elsewhere. I've seen a few ups and downs in the market, but nothing like what happened over the last two years. There was a moment in 2020 when more acres of weed were being grown than alfalfa . Neighbors were signing multi-year contracts to rent out their water rights. And oh, all of the terrible behavior that the ru…

Wait, why in the world would they go to Oklahoma to grow? That is like asking for trouble from the law.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/us/oklahoma-marijuana-boo...

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#47

Post by asdff »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #40
rippercushions wrote: post #16

The cannabis boom seems to have been predicated largely on the assumption that it would resemble the high-end wine market, with expensive vintages, "budtenders", etc that can support lots of boutique farms and retailers. But it looks more like the future will resemble the tobacco industry, with slim profit margins and a handful of conglomerates controlling production. And in reality, for wine as well, LVMH owns many…

There are high-end weed products out there. High quality wax, concentrates, and edibles for discerning customers exists. Certain dispensaries also specialize in higher quality product. I enjoy many of these myself as legal weed in my area is still much cheaper than alcohol and I prefer the product. Wine has had a stable market for centuries with products aimed at many customer segments, high and low quality segments…

>discerning

I have serious gripes with the high end market in the dispensary. For example, Stiizy will sell you a gram of distillate in a cartridge for $60. It's the exact same product as the one being sold in that same dispensary for $20 from a brand with less instagram presence. Distillate is pretty much commoditized. Also the entire $60 1/8th market is absurd to me, it seemingly exists for people who assume price means quality because at the end of the day, its not significantly different than the stuff being sold for less than half as much, but it might come in a nice glass jar with a sexy lid instead of an opaque plastic bag.

Then if you start growing yourself its like seeing the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz, with how much excellent weed you can produce in a few months with little investment or effort beyond what you'd do for a tomato plant. It will honestly look better too being hand trimmed and cured versus trimmed by a trim bag facing whatever the commercial growers do to cure it into a tiny, dry rock hard nug (probably good for scaling the process but its ugly to me).

I guess you can say this is true for just about any luxury product though. There are people that say wild turky or knob creek is a lot better than much more expensive whisky some people chase after.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#48

Post by asdff »

dmurray wrote: post #38
asdff wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a lot more than $500 off a single plant. Outdoors grown right into the soil, you could get a pound or more off a single humongous plant, and in California with a medical card you can have 12 of these plants growing at once. Even a small indoor tent grown plant is good for like 5-6 oz or more 3-5 months from start to harvest. Genetics are great these days for seeds and clones. Imagine parting that out for…

You can get $5000 or a lot more for a single bottle (~1 plant) of wine, too. But if you're growing acres of either crop you aren't making those numbers reliably.

Is your bottle of wine ready for market in 6 months or less from when you plant your vineyard? Probably not though. The speed at which you can get these yields is another huge advantage for these crops. Some commercial growers are having new plants grow up to harvest continuously, with separate rooms for vegetative growing, flowering, and even maintaining a genetic library of clones fit for expanding and out planting in your greenhouse. You can also grow this crop anywhere in the world, unlike grapevine.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#49

Post by asdff »

nickthegreek wrote: post #25
pixl97 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean $100 for 2 ounces of the marijuana plant in particular isn't cheap at all. There are some 'mild' complications in growing it, but in theory it should end up more like a bulk farming product where we talk about dollars per pound on the retail side, and dollars per ton on the wholesale side.

Wild to not consider that cheap! In Ohio, with a med card, you will pay over $300 for 1.

There's a reason why there are dispensaries for ohioans set up just across the michigan border.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#50

Post by asdff »

Animats wrote: post #37

So even in a supply glut, demand doesn't go up much. The supply of potential druggies is limited. That's good news.

I think if people were more open to it culturally it would be used a lot more. I know plenty of my elderly relatives who would benefit switching from opioids to this for their chronic pain, but they grew up being fed lies about the drug that precludes them ever experimenting.

Socially its also not up to the level of alcohol is even in California. Every work event I have for instance has a selection of beers and wines and hard kombucha for us, but never any weed even if its legal for all of us, a few of us do use it, and our company does not care that we do it or not. One can argue "well a whole joint is a lot for most people" but I counter with the fact that you do not need to necessarily imbibe to the point of total impairment just like how you would not polish an entire bottle of scotch at the work event. They even sell seltzers with just a touch of thc in them these days, that would certainly be healthier than a white claw.

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