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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

#81

Post by standardUser »

asdff wrote: post #60
telotortium wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got to normalize edibles (and federal legalization wouldn't hurt). No one in the US is going to provide product to smoke or vape.

That's why I think these edible drinks are really interesting for mass market. Pabst Blue Ribbon makes a thc beer now (no alcohol in it though). You can sip on one of these like you would a beer in a social setting, and it will be like 5-10mg which is as small as edibles go for the most part in terms of dosage. Even if that was high for your tolerance you can just cut yourself off, and safe the rest of the drink for…

Those popular Terra edibles are 5mg each and I know multiple people who prefer only half of one. I'd be interested in trying a very low THC beer, like 2-5mg. Don't underestimate the role tolerance plays. Most occasional/casual users simply have a minor overdose on what regular users consider "good" weed or "small" edibles.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#82

Post by rascul »

asdff wrote: post #35
hotpotamus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading something years back that applying modern large scale ag technology to cannabis was never a technical hurdle, merely a legal one, and how much cheaper it would be once the well-capitalized giants got ahold of it and came to pretty much the same conclusion. It did make for a neat trip through Colorado in 2017 when it was still pretty novel though.

It actually is a technical hurdle because not a lot of academic research is being done on it for commercial growers to use. You see some papers out there that cover things like yield per light spectrum or what soil ammendments do for terpene content, but they all come out of Canada and specifically McGill. It's like U.S. researchers are blackballed by their institutions or maybe their grant funding agencies. As such,…

From what I understand, the current classification in the US is what stops a lot of the research. Also, if you can get past that, you have to use crappy weed from the federal government that isn't representative of what people are consuming. I don't have any references available, though.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#83

Post by extr »

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…

Great observation. I think people without a ton of experience with weed fail to appreciate just how different it is compared to alcohol. Back when weed was illegal I used to have a joke I would make with dealers. I would ask them what the strain of the weed I was buying, and usually they would tell me it was some Sour Diesel Purple Hurple Haze Hybrid or whatever (they were making it up on the spot most of the time, I'm sure). And I would then ask "Will it get me high?" and everyone would laugh.

The joke being that these days it's all the same stuff. It's either complete shit weed (which is rare) or high potency modern bud that is all basically interchangeable. I personally have never even been able to detect a real difference between sativa and indica, let alone individual strains. Does some of it taste kind of different...sure? But smoking something or even vaping it is just fundamentally a different experience. It's not food, it's clearly a drug. It's in your mouth for like a second max. Tolerance works differently too, unless you are a daily, habitual user you're not sitting there puffing on a 90% THC weed pen for hours. One puff and you're fucked up. But you can have a glass or two of wine and feel mostly normal, even for someone who doesn't drink often. You can sip on it.

So IMO all of this had led me to the same conclusion as you. The market is headed for complete commoditization in no time. I have a friend who works for Altria and she was saying even 10 years ago they were planning for complete legalization and to dominate the market once it happened. The growing fields were already purchased back then.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#84

Post by int_19h »

atentaten wrote: post #9
greazy wrote: post #2

This reminds me of the strawberry growers here in Australia, QLD. Many farmers switched to strawberries and the market was flooded for one season. They were literally selling them by the kilo when previously punnets (250g) were 3-5 dollars each. Lots of farmers switched to other more stable crops. The big players stayed and the small farmers producing high quality fruit continued. The market stabilizing. Interesting…

Off topic. I've been appalled at how tasteless store-bought strawberries in the U.S. have become. I don't know happened, a change in cultivar? 12 years ago I could buy flavorful strawberries in the U.S., today I cannot. I hope they have more flavor in AU.

BTW, if you haven't tried wild strawberries, I would highly recommend. They are not super sweet, but they have very strong, concentrated flavor, much more so than regular strawberries. Seems to be largely unknown in US, unfortunately?

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

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#86

Post by loeg »

asdff wrote: post #30
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…

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 think bulk growers are making significantly more than $500 a lb? $30/g was fictional even before legalization.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#87

Post by AlbertCory »

atentaten wrote: post #9
greazy wrote: post #2

This reminds me of the strawberry growers here in Australia, QLD. Many farmers switched to strawberries and the market was flooded for one season. They were literally selling them by the kilo when previously punnets (250g) were 3-5 dollars each. Lots of farmers switched to other more stable crops. The big players stayed and the small farmers producing high quality fruit continued. The market stabilizing. Interesting…

Off topic. I've been appalled at how tasteless store-bought strawberries in the U.S. have become. I don't know happened, a change in cultivar? 12 years ago I could buy flavorful strawberries in the U.S., today I cannot. I hope they have more flavor in AU.

Besides farmers' markets, which the others have mentioned, there are smaller produce markets in a lot of areas (they tend to be in strip malls, at least near me). Their whole shtick is having good produce, including berries.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#88

Post by skyberrys »

atentaten wrote: post #9
greazy wrote: post #2

This reminds me of the strawberry growers here in Australia, QLD. Many farmers switched to strawberries and the market was flooded for one season. They were literally selling them by the kilo when previously punnets (250g) were 3-5 dollars each. Lots of farmers switched to other more stable crops. The big players stayed and the small farmers producing high quality fruit continued. The market stabilizing. Interesting…

Off topic. I've been appalled at how tasteless store-bought strawberries in the U.S. have become. I don't know happened, a change in cultivar? 12 years ago I could buy flavorful strawberries in the U.S., today I cannot. I hope they have more flavor in AU.

Try getting some Mara de Bois bare root strawberries. I plant them in old paper bags filled with soil and leave them outside.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#89

Post by asdff »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #73
asdff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually is a technical hurdle because not a lot of academic research is being done on it for commercial growers to use. You see some papers out there that cover things like yield per light spectrum or what soil ammendments do for terpene content, but they all come out of Canada and specifically McGill. It's like U.S. researchers are blackballed by their institutions or maybe their grant funding agencies. As such,…

Corn feeds millions of people and animals. Pot? It doesn’t feed anyone. So I can understand the funding disparity.

It's not so much as a disparity as the funding is simply nonexistent. Pot doesn't feed anyone of course, but its legitimate medicine.

Re: How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

#90

Post by rcme »

jspash wrote: post #18
atentaten wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off topic. I've been appalled at how tasteless store-bought strawberries in the U.S. have become. I don't know happened, a change in cultivar? 12 years ago I could buy flavorful strawberries in the U.S., today I cannot. I hope they have more flavor in AU.

If you have the money, take a trip to Japan and you can try the best strawberries in the world. Only $500 each! https://strawberryplants.org/japanese-strawberry-growing-sec...

This company [0] is producing vertically grown strawberries with insanely high sugar content. They're apparently very good, but I haven't been willing to spend $15 on 6 strawberries.

0: https://oishii.com

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