How the marijuana ‘green rush’ fell apart

December 30, 2022
AggregatedNews
On the Move
1 Comment

It wasn’t always Josh Keats’s job to drive the tractor.

The co-founder of Henry’s Original once had a small crew to farm his 7-plus acres of cannabis from his base in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle. But on this fall day, it’s Keats operating the heavy machinery, trundling down rows of rich green stalks, because he had to let go two-thirds of his staff to stay afloat.

Yet, he’s grateful. Other weed growers, processors and retailers have had to make more painful cuts — or have folded altogether. “We are witnessing massive insolvency,” Keats said, “especially on the West Coast.”

The legal cannabis trade, still in its infancy, is flailing in many parts of the country as the pandemic boom that sent sales soaring has tapered off. Supply is now flooding the market in several states, economists say, depressing prices and decimating already-thin margins. And competition is sure to escalate as decriminalization spreads, large growers adopt more cost-effective technologies and the illegal market not only endures, but thrives.

The turmoil is mostly lost on consumers because weed is the rare commodity untouched by the pervasively high inflation blanketing most other goods and services. In fact, retail prices have fallen 10 percent this year in California, the nation’s largest market. It also compounds the challenges unique to this industry: Because marijuana remains illegal federally, businesses must navigate a labyrinth of overlapping regulations — creating confusion and occasionally chaos.

[Read more at The Washington Post]

This Post Has One Comment

Michael “Budsy” Davis says:

December 31, 2022 at 1:51 pm

There are only 4 groups that want Cannabis Prohibition and maintain illegality of a plant that can grow wild.
1. People that benefit directly from it being illegal such as Private Prison owners and Police Officers.
2. Corrupt Politicians that accept kickbacks and bribes from those private prison owners, tobacco, oil, textile, and pharmaceutical companies.
3. THE PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY GROW AND SELL THE ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES.
4. Uneducated Morons that still believe in “Reefer Madness”

The continued prohibition against cannabis legalization is not about prevention but rather maintaining the flow of money towards these 4 groups.

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