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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the first-sale-at-4:20 dept.

California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use

California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.

It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.

Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.

With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.

The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.


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  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:55AM (10 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:55AM (#616583)

    Quit smoking pot a good 40 years ago (it gave me a headache, my dad and sister have migraines so, yeah). The San Diego Reader has a bunch of ads for medical weed, price seems to be $7-10 a gram. Sounds like the State and cities are getting greedy and ratcheting up taxes on the stuff. In maybe 3 days to let things fall out I'm curious which will be cheaper?

    A) Freely available weed to everyone

    B) Medical marijuana sold to peeps who pay $25-40 for a card of some sort

    C) Weed you can buy from some guy that 40 years ago was your high school quarterback.
    D) My brother in law, who has been growing in his backyard for a good 10 years now. They don't smoke, they sell it all.

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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:07AM (9 children)

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:07AM (#616587)

    Not sure what your brother-in-law charges but otherwise one would assume your friendly neighborhood drugdealer would be the cheapest since there are no taxes on his transactions. That said one could further assume that you get what you pay for and one would assume that would be easier to know or figure out if you buy from a proper legal store.

    • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:17AM (2 children)

      by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:17AM (#616589)

      I've never asked what he charges, but he has 5-6 plants at a time in his greenhouse. He also grows tomatoes and various herbs, all of which he uses himself.

      I suspect CA will smother the golden goose via taxes, I'm guessing the price low to high will be:
      1) Local weed dealer. No taxes, but no idea how good/safe the weed is.
      2) Medical weed. Kinda regulated, decent prices
      3) Legal weed. Strangled by taxes, bought by people who for whatever reason don't want to get a medical marijuana card.

      --
      Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:20AM (1 child)

        by anubi (2828) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:20AM (#616660) Journal

        I haven't been keeping up with this... is it legal to grow your own?

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        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @07:47PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @07:47PM (#616849)

          In all the state's that have legalized recreational use yeah, up to X number of plants. Here in CA I think it is 6(?) and you can legally carry up to an ounce of weed. I can't wait for the end of the black market, it attracts so many scum sucking slimeballs. The decent folks are all going through the hassle of legalizing their operations, the fuckwads hopefully just go back to working normal jobs.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:17AM (5 children)

      by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:17AM (#616640)

      Here in Washington, the weed is as cheap, and frequently cheaper than the street. I only speak of the east side, as I live in Spokane, not Seattle. Meh weed is like 6 a gram or 65 an oz, good weed 10-12 a gram and around 110-150 an oz. Great weed maybe 15-20 and 150-220 an oz. The black market is dead. The handful of street dealers can't compete with well equipped stores with 30 strains and weekly sales from specific growers. Plus the stores have edibles, drinkables, wax, shatter, oil, body creams and are clean, professional, and very well stocked. The clientele completely dispels the stereotype.
      We have both budget and boutique style shops.

      A street dealer just can't compete.

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      • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:01AM (4 children)

        by looorg (578) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:01AM (#616681)

        That is kind of interesting. The street dealer only really offer two perks -- one should be the price since he doesn't have to pay any sales taxes and his transaction should be more anonymous then getting a card or register in some other fashion. The problem might be greed, the legal and illegal side keep looking at each other and trying to figure out what they price should be. I recon the street dealers just pocket taxes as extra income. But if he can't compete with prices then as noted he should be dead in the water.

        As a matter of selection the street dealer should never have the same selection as a store. But growing wise it shouldn't be an issue, somewhat depending on where the dealer gets their weed from.

        Stores probably opens up a whole new market to, people that wouldn't ever buy illegal drugs or don't even know where to get them. They can easily walk into a big store with a large sign on it.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:09AM (3 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:09AM (#616682) Journal

          I think that you may be overlooking one pretty serious cost for illegal sales. That is the risk of jail. Remember Al Capone? They never did convict him of the various violent crimes he committed. They got him on tax evasion. He "got away with" countless violent crimes, but was burned for not paying taxes. Street sales people are going to consider the risk of being caught. Time in jail, money for bail, money for lawyers, the risk of conviction, potential years out of your life - and the knowledge that the guy who gets a business license, pays taxes, and does everything legal is probably making more money than you in the long run.

          • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:46AM (1 child)

            by looorg (578) on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:46AM (#616689)

            The downside of crime, it very rarely pays. I seem to recall having read numerous studies where they conclude that if criminals had just taken the worst of lowpaying McJobs they would in the long run have been better off. There is just a small group of criminals that actually make decent money and it usually doesn't last or the risks, as you have noted them, are staggering. Not only from the justice-system but also from other criminals.

            I think one of the interesting side effects might be what the legalization and industrialization of growing might to do to the (mexican-) drug cartels south of the border. It should be murder on their weed related business. There shouldn't be any point in smuggling in weed from outside anymore. I guess they have to shift their entire focus to harder drugs. One wonders if they might set up "legal" growfarms on the northern side of the border, might be a great money laundering facility if they can get into the network on the legal side of things.

            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:45PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:45PM (#616731)

              I'd wager that even if you somehow were able to go back in time and tell each and every one of the individuals, the criminals, the exact statistics - and have them somehow completely believe you - that they would still choose crime. There's more to life than maximizing expected income. Going the route outside of McJobs comes with the potential for massive gains as well respect. People who work McJobs are generally treated like jokes, and their potential for meaningful gains are near 0. That's not a pleasant existence, even if it may be the tortoise beating the hare in most cases.

          • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:00AM

            by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:00AM (#617046)

            Ah, yes, I can only comment on the laws here, but recreational doesn't require anything other than showing your ID in exactly the same manner as buying cigarettes or alcohol. No record kept. Medical required a database, but we pretty much eliminated medical. You only need a medical card to grow. I wish we had adopted growing with recreational, but hey, we were the first and it was a bitch implementing it the first year, too few stores and too many grow licenses, that caused a glut. It has since stabilized.

            --
            Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.