{"id":37078,"date":"2019-07-26T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-26T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/07\/26\/why-the-illicit-market-lives-on\/"},"modified":"2019-07-26T12:41:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T20:41:32","slug":"why-the-illicit-market-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/07\/26\/why-the-illicit-market-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Illicit Market Lives On"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an unsettling sense of\u00a0deja vu<\/em>\u00a0to recent headlines of big cannabis raids in states that have legalized, from California\u2019s Emerald Triangle to Colorado\u2019s Front Range.<\/p>\n

The upswing on such raids in the latter recently won some national media coverage, which provides fodder for opponents of legalization \u2014 and for those who favor a more restrictive model of legalization, in which there is no right to home cultivation.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0PBS News Hour<\/a>\u00a0on July 15 quoted Colorado\u2019s ex-governor (and current Democratic presidential hopeful) John Hickenlooper. He was governor both when voters approved legal cannabis with the Amendment 64 initiative in 2012, and when legalization took effect two years later. \u201cWe thought that the black market would disappear,\u201d he said. \u201cEvidently, it contracted, and then began to expand again. And that\u2019s counterintuitive, right? It\u2019s not what you would expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backlash in Colorado<\/h4>\n

The PBS report detailed the March 2018 raids in Firestone, a staid suburban enclave north of Denver, in which the DEA seized more than 78,000 plants and more than 2,300 pounds of processed marijuana, serving almost 200 search warrants, making dozens of arrests. The raids were\u00a0hyped by local media<\/a>\u00a0at the time as targeting a \u201cdrug cartel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report didn\u2019t note that there was a\u00a0reprise of that episode this\u00a0May<\/a>, when federal agents backed up by local police arrested dozens in some 250 searches, seizing over 80,000 plants and 4,500 pounds of harvested bud. These raids targeted several locations across the state \u2014 again, including in upscale suburbs of the Denver metro area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PBS likewise hyped supposed international crime machine involvement in Colorado\u2019s illicit cannabis sector. Justin Miller, intelligence chief for the DEA field office in Miami, was quoted warning of \u201cCuban drug trafficking organizations relocating to places such as Colorado, setting up operations, leaving their proxies back here in the state of Florida, and producing large-scale marijuana for distribution, diversion out of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado-grown illicit cannabis has been seized in at least 34 states according to official stats cited by PBS \u2014 although it is not explained how the state of origin was determined. The stats, from Colorado state authorities, are said to indicate a particular connection to Florida. Colorado-grown illicit product was reportedly uncovered in the Sunshine State at least 70 times between 2013 and 2017.<\/p>\n

Miller implicitly blamed the tolerant atmosphere fostered by legalization in Colorado. \u201cIt\u2019s just the widespread perception that growing marijuana up there is much less scrutinized,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A similar sentiment was expressed by Bob Troyer, who stepped down last year as U.S. attorney for\u00a0Colorado: \u201cThe thing that nobody predicted is that normalization, commercialization would be a magnet for international black market activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

And even voices from within the legal cannabis industry called for a more restrictive model of \u201clegalization.\u201d Chris Woods, president of the cannabis cultivator and dispensary chain incorrectly identified by PBS as \u201cTerrapin Station\u201d (it\u2019s actually\u00a0Terrapin Care Station<\/a>),\u00a0boasted of how the company\u2019s operations are tracked and scrutinized by the\u00a0Colorado Department of Revenue<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marijuana Enforcement Division<\/a>, with each plant fitted with an RFID tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Woods complained that a too-permissive legalization had opened up a free-for-all: \u201cI think one of the mistakes that was made in Colorado and some other states is allowing for home cultivation. And what we\u2019re seeing right now is a lot of cleanup from the mistakes that have been made.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Coast Market Glut<\/h4>\n

Big raids, disturbingly reminiscent of pre-legalization days, have also been reported from California in recent weeks. Militarized cannabis raids\u00a0in Trinity County<\/a>\u00a0in late June were followed just two weeks later by a similar campaign in Mendocino, ominously dubbed \u201cOperation Clean Sweep<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

An account in the\u00a0Boston Globe<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year blamed overproduction in California and Oregon for driving the illicit market. As the\u00a0market was flooded<\/a>, prices in these states plunged, Andrew Livingston of the cannabis-industry law firm\u00a0Vicente Sederberg<\/a>\u00a0said: \u201cThat\u2019s encouraged some Oregon growers to sell their crops in states where the drug is illegal and prices are much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oregon legal producers have called for alleviating the glut by\u00a0allowing export across state lines<\/a>\u00a0to other jurisdictions that have legalized. In June, Oregon lawmakers\u00a0approved a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would allow the governor to enter into trade agreements with neighboring states that have also legalized \u2014 although this solution certainly tempts federal interference.<\/p>\n

In any case, this is obviously not an immediate solution. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of money to be made in the black market,\u201d Mendocino Sheriff Thomas D. Allman told the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0in April. Legalization, he said, \u201ccertainly didn\u2019t put cops out of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Gov. Gavin Newsom, has declared that the illicit cultivation problem in Northern California is \u201cgetting worse, not better,\u201d and has\u00a0diverted National Guard<\/a>\u00a0troops from border enforcement in the south to cannabis eradication in the north.<\/p>\n

The Times account also quoted voices from within the industry who fear a too-freewheeling legalization. \u00a0\u201cWe are the taxpayers \u2014 no one else should be operating,\u201d said Robert Taft Jr., who has seen dropping sales at his Orange County retail outlet (identified by the\u00a0OC Register<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0420 Central<\/a>). He attributed the decline to competition from the illicit market. \u201cThis is starting to get ridiculous,\u201d he told the Times. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like the state is setting itself up to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Times article actually broaches the possibility that the real problem in California is\u00a0too many<\/em>\u00a0restrictions on the market. State law gives localities the right to bar cannabis businesses \u2014 and 80% of California\u2019s nearly 500 municipalities have done so. This leaves consumers across much of the state with little alternative to the illicit market.<\/p>\n

According to the industry consultancy\u00a0BDS Analytics<\/a>, cited by the\u00a0Boston Globe<\/a>, a whopping 82% of California cannabis sales took place on the illicit market in 2018. This compares with one-third of sales in Colorado, 39% in Washington, and 48% in Oregon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too Much Legalization \u2014 Or Not Enough?<\/h4>\n

In Massachusetts, which approved a legalization initiative in 2016, it\u2019s estimated that 75% of cannabis sold continues to be on the illicit market. And, by the Globe\u2019s account, this may also be due to the limited availability of the legal stuff. With only eight retail outlets operating statewide, many residents have to choose between a long drive or an illegal purchase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Globe quoted one consumer in the town of Reading. \u201cThey\u2019ve made it so inconvenient,\u201d she said. \u00a0Her nearest retail outlet was \u201cin the middle of nowhere.\u201d And when she got there, \u201cthe line was so crazy that I didn\u2019t even bother going in \u2014 I kept the black market alive instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the bureaucratic obstacles to getting into the business may also be depressing legal supply. \u201cIt takes thousands of dollars just to even think about applying, unfortunately,\u201d said Joanna Varner, a medical marijuana user and prospective entrepreneur in Weymouth. \u201cThat\u2019s not even talking about your business equipment at all\u2026 It\u2019s nearly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that this law is having the effect it was intended to have, which is to reduce the illicit market,\u201d\u00a0Massachusetts Cannabis Control<\/a>\u00a0commissioner Britte McBride told the Globe. \u201cIt\u2019s the ballgame.\u201d But there appears to be little consensus on how to get there. Police are calling for harsher punishments, while rights advocates warn this will replicate the very abuses that legalization was intended to address in the first place.<\/p>\n

Lifting the bureaucratic hurdles for legal providers might be a better way to de-incentivize the illicit market. And, contrary to both the perceptions of police and the wishes of Big Bud, so might allowing greater consumer self-sufficiency by giving more elbow room to homegrown.<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, what would make you turn to the illicit cannabis market instead of the legal one?<\/p>\n

The post Why the Illicit Market Lives On<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Why the Illicit Market Lives On<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an unsettling sense of\u00a0deja vu\u00a0to recent headlines of big cannabis raids in states that have legalized, from California\u2019s Emerald Triangle to Colorado\u2019s Front Range. The upswing on such raids in the latter recently won some national media coverage, which provides fodder for opponents of legalization \u2014 and for thoseContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4588,148,50,3947,21,886,90,687,11626,7605],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37079,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37078\/revisions\/37079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}