- Christopher Smith, Publisher
What Can We Do to Save the California Cannabis Market?
Two major articles have landed recently that describe the ills of the California cannabis market in stark terms.
I say, enough yipping - state and federal organizations are not capable of addressing our concerns and need our help. It behooves us to understand the issues, and BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION.
Read on, learn, think, strategize, and make a plan to get involved on the policy level to help make the necessary changes to help our industry reach its potential!
A taste:
"Most people thought the legal market would overtake the illicit market. After all, if you can go into a shop and buy weed just like you buy a bottle of Snapple, why would anyone buy it illegally?
Well, because the Snapple doesn’t cost $7 a bottle, is why.
Prices of weed have plummeted lately, but that doesn’t mean the differential between legal and illicit is any less stark. The market for illicit pot in California is still much larger than the legal market—approaching three times the size, by some estimates. That’s the chief reason people are calling for lower taxes. Another big reason for the illicit market’s dominance: the decision—also embedded in Prop. 64—to allow local governments to decide whether or not to grant cannabis licenses. Huge swaths of California are pot deserts, with no dispensaries within reasonable driving distance..."
And this one:
A taste:
"Researchers eager to conduct rigorous scientific studies have hit daunting roadblocks that come with a substance still classified by Washington as more dangerous than cocaine and opium and as having no medical value — even as millions use it to treat ailments. Yet, as with so many other things California does, advances by the state that long infuriated federal regulators are becoming their guideposts. After a quarter-century in which California fought the status quo, launching marijuana research at its universities years before others took that plunge, it is Washington that has become the outlier.
Now, medical researchers long stymied by Washington’s “Reefer Madness” mindset are being freed by the Biden administration to attempt to develop medical marijuana that is scientifically tested and dispensed with the oversight and precision of conventional pharmaceuticals."