Waiting for Cannabis Prices to Go Up? Risky Move, Smart Decision, or Only Choice?

 

bag of buds

Bag of buds [Photo by Kym Kemp]

Marijuana Business Daily, a Colorado based cannabis news outlet, interviewed multiple Emerald Counties farmers for a recent story and said that some of them are holding onto product hoping that prices will rise to $1,300-$1,700 per pound for wholesale flower when retailers are only allowed to sell product that passes the new California tests later this year.

According to an interview the Marijuana Business Daily did with Terra Carver, executive director of the Humboldt County Growers Alliance,

Holding back marijuana could create a shortage of clean product for retailers, and that’s exactly what a lot of small growers are banking on, Carver said.

She estimated there are probably “thousands” of pounds of flower in Humboldt County waiting to be brought into the legal supply chain.

“It’s kind of a play-the-market-and-see-what-happens moment,” Carver said.

“People had a decision to make, whether or not they were going to hold and wait in the hopes that there will be a price spike. We saw that in Colorado, we saw that in Washington.”

Other farmers, such as one they quote, a Nik Erickson of Full Moon Farms, said, “I never wait. If it gets trimmed up, it’s going out the door.”

So…are legal farmers holding product hoping for higher prices or selling it as fast as they get it trimmed as Marijuana Business Daily’s article suggests? Or are most of them unable to even find much of a legal market to sell in at all?

We’re curious to get your take.

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Pet Peeve
Guest
Pet Peeve
6 years ago

Most of Humboldt pot is sold on the black market.
Get rid of it , folks. It’s going to turn brown and oxidize, especially in those stupid oven bags.

Umm
Guest
Umm
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

What is a black market? Isn’t that for children and animals horns? Oh you mean the underground market?

Pet Peeve
Guest
Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Umm

Try making sense, troll.

Umm
Guest
Umm
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

Troll? If that doesn’t make sense to you I’m sorry.

koastdog
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Umm

we like to use the words “conventional markets”

LabeledaNazi
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LabeledaNazi
6 years ago
Reply to  Umm

It makes total sence umm. Marijuana being sold has always been illegal,so your right. I read it here from another poster. It’s called the “traditional “ market, and yes BLACKMARKETSMATTER. The price will go up for that market and plummet for the legal market here in cali. Did in Washington a few years ago. My buddy killed it after it went “legal” on the traditional market. Have faith humboldt (unless you signed up to go legit!)

Steve
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Steve
6 years ago
Reply to  Umm

The “non-taxed” market

Umm
Guest
Umm
6 years ago
Reply to  Steve

I like all those. Black market is just racist. Underground, conventional, cash, no tax. All the same
Underground tells you that it’s our choice as humans what to do feed our families.. the mainstream conventional.society isn’t on everyone’s side. It’s convoluted and full of confused folks. Hearing growers who have made money in the underground world forever say black maroet just makes them seem like not only hypocrites, but just more pawns. That’s why some of us came to a place like this
To be autonomous and away from some of the more materialistic clamour of modern Life. Watching the pot world get consumed by the modern capatlist machine is hilarious and sad.. really shows who’s who imho

Matthew Meyer
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Matthew Meyer
6 years ago
Reply to  Umm

“Informal economy” is a good, nonjudgmental term for markets not regulated by the government.

Franky
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

yes! oven bags are the worst!! http://www.soldierbags.com are for long-term storage!~sell sell!

LabeledaNazi
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LabeledaNazi
6 years ago
Reply to  Franky

👍🏼

Rez Dog
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Rez Dog
6 years ago

In the future, cannabis will have thier own “Stock Exchange” where cannabis futures will be sold much like pork bellies. This exchange cannot be regulated under federal law because of federal prohibitions, but someone will come up with a system. As for now, it’s a crap shoot with no winners and losers because the market is driven by users and there is a finite number of users in California.

V man
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V man
6 years ago
Reply to  Rez Dog

Cannabis is not pork bellies or OJ. It’s too diverse to lump together like that. No consistency throughout the market.

Juan Valdez
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Juan Valdez
6 years ago
Reply to  V man

A “C” market is a mechanism to trade large quantities of relatively similar products. Cannabis isn’t as diverse as you might like to think, especially to a trader. I traded coffee for a large importer for 25 years, there is a dizzying array of diversity in the marketplace, yet somehow we found a way to create a C market that trades hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Cannabis is no different than tea, coffee or cocoa when viewed through the lens of a trader. The utter diversity in each of those three products covers any spread cannabis could hope to cover. All three are globally farmed with vastly different internal standards/methods of production.

You have piles of rotting triage coffee being sold for (-.75) off the “C” market and you have 100 pound lots of Panama going at auction for $640-$750 a pound. Those are the exceptions, about 2-3% on either side which leaves 94-96% as ostensibly the same thing. The fact that the “C” market settled at $1.2225/lb yesterday and 22,500 contracts traded hands has very little bearing on the specialty auction price. Most of the “C” trades were entirely speculative and very few were for actual delivery of products.

Coffee, Tea and Cocoa have been traded as a commodity for hundreds of years. Cannabis will join them, no one will have to invent the wheel to come up with a set of standards and once you have standards it is easy to create positive and negative differentials to increase or lower value of a product based on quality (or lack of).

In the case of coffee you have a “C” market price that is the basis point for negotiating a contract. You could buy a container of “C” market or you could negotiate with a producer to pay them a sum +/- the C market price based on mutually agreed upon standards. If two sides can’t agree you have a binding arbitration clause in the contract.

You can see it in action on a small scale right now at your local cannabis retailer. They likely have top shelf and bargain bags. In the middle you have 20 jars of flowers that aren’t distinctive enough to be top shelf but are too nice to be bargain. That is your commodity market. The speculator doesn’t care if it is green crack or blue dream. He cares that the opening price for a contract was $550 and the closing price was $547. He is taking profits on the $3 swing. The store operator can order C-grade Blue Dream and fix it at $547 a unit from their seller.

The top end of the cannabis market will eventually find its way to an auction system. You’ll see good prices paid for directly traded lots but the 1% of the 1% will be sold at auction for prices well beyond the commodity market price.

Taurus Ballzhoff
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Taurus Ballzhoff
6 years ago
Reply to  Juan Valdez

Thanks for the detailed explanation of how the market SHOULD operate, after the black market cowboys drive home to wherever they came from in their Tundras…

Hopefully Humboldt will return to sensibility, of some sort, in 100 years or so.

zookeeper
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zookeeper
6 years ago
Reply to  Rez Dog

There is no future. People aren’t going to line up to buy expensive pot in arid California when they can buy it cheap in the water-rich Midwest. It’s done. Stick a fork in it. The money’s on the East Coast. The only problem with that is the fed thinks dimly of transporting it across states that respect the federal law.

Ironically, those potheads seeking legalization (against federal law, so it’s not actually legal), made prices plummet, discouraged growers thereby, turned the “Devil’s lettuce” into something as mundane as drinking a diet coke and created a new allure for today’s vogue bad boy: heroin.

Meanwhile the initiatives in the various states approved for ballot were all approved illegally. No State may “vote in” a law that directly defies statutes governing all 50 states at the federal level. Kamala Harris screwed up when she reviewed the proposed initiative. You can literally thank her directly for the doom to come. The states all need to participate in any changes via Congress.

There is so much stupid in this “legal weed” move that I’d need about four of Kym’s web pages to write it all down.

Scooter
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Scooter
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

The whole world buys California produce. The whole world wants California herb. The garden state.

Mr. Bear
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Mr. Bear
6 years ago
Reply to  Scooter

The whole world buys California produce because we have the climate and vast ag land to grow it on.

You can grow quality herb anywhere. I hear it’ll even grow on crappy forest land if you truck in enough soil and pour on enough fertilizer

lol
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lol
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Bear

it’s still not the same & never will be

Sleepy Alligator
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Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Bear

You can grow quality indoor anywhere but that is not the case with outdoor. One reason that nowhere in the U.S. east of the Rockies is famous for it’s quality marijuana is because of the humidity. Humidity = mold.

zookeeper
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zookeeper
6 years ago

Oh that’s right. It’s not humid in Humboldt, nor is there any problem with mold spores assayed on pot samples from here. lol.

Sleepy Alligator
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Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

If you think Humboldt is humid then you’ve obviously never been anywhere east of the Rockies.

Emily
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Emily
6 years ago

You’re right of course. We have dry summers (Mediterranean climate) with lots of sun.. only the west coast has that climate. Trust me it’s not worth arguing people that don’t know what they’re talking about;)

Lost Croat Outburst
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Lost Croat Outburst
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

You’ve obviously never been east of Blue Lake or Carlotta in the summer. It’s way, way less humid than the eastern third of the nation.

rolling hills
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rolling hills
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

You have no idea what high humidity feels like in the summer until you’ve lived in the Midwest, East Coast or the South. Maybe should travel a little bit more.

Matthew Meyer
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Matthew Meyer
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Bear

Not at scale, you can’t grow good herb anywhere.

There is a reason California produces 99% or better of US walnuts, raisins, kiwis, figs, dates, artichokes, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, clingstone peaches, prunes, and olives. http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/files/147809.pdf

Many of these crops can be successfully grown in many locations, but they just don’t do as well as they do in California.

rolling hills
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rolling hills
6 years ago
Reply to  Mr. Bear

Can you make sunshine for 120 days in the Spring and Summer everywhere? Can you keep the humidity down everywhere? Don’t think so.

ghostown
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ghostown
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

I’d like to hear you elaborate on your assumption that plummeting cannabis prices had anything to do with the opioid crisis, because it sounds like bs.

zookeeper
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zookeeper
6 years ago
Reply to  ghostown

Opium is the new allure for kids to be bad these days. Maybe you’ve heard Humboldt is a red spot on the nation’s map for people dying of heroin overdose? Used to be sneaking smoking pot was the way to be a rebel. Now it’s making needle tracks on your arms. Elaboration complete.

Ice
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Ice
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

Heroin has always been in Humboldt. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, pulp ships from Asia brought it in to Samoa because of lack of Customs enforcement. Entire areas, like Manila, had huge heroin problems in the 70’s and 80’s… It became hard to find for some years here due to many reasons, better enforcement and reduced ship traffic from Asia here. Now the Mexican cartels are picking up that slack, reinforced with Fentynl and other stong cuts…and a whole new generation of Humboldt junkies are born…

Smh
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Smh
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

You are delusional

Franky
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

Absolutely agree!!! Prop 64 is bad news!

Jeffersonian
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Jeffersonian
6 years ago
Reply to  Franky

Dude, stop pushing your ridiculous wares in the comments section.

Lost Croat Outburst
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Lost Croat Outburst
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

You would rather keep it illegal? That would be very stupid. Granted, it’s a mess now and the humboldt Supervisors have likely strangled the golden-egg laying goose for now, but a legal market is the only long-term solution.

rolling hills
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rolling hills
6 years ago
Reply to  zookeeper

Huh? Humboldt County arid? It’s arid when it needs to be arid… the summer and early fall, when they’re growing and budding. It’s wet when it needs to be wet… the winter, when it’s stored. Weed in Michigan is “cheap” for a reason.

Tire Guys and The Bootleg both attest: spending is WAY down
Guest
Tire Guys and The Bootleg both attest: spending is WAY down
6 years ago

One can hope they spike. But desperate times call for desperate measures and the buyers hold the wheel right now. So many folks are scrimping by!! They are forced cave and it flies for a lowlow song . I have observed that the cautious, unlucky, or lazy who didn’t manage to kill it the last five years are the most hurting and regretful . It sucks to be sitting on a quantity of product you can’t even afford to bring crew in to clean. A somber tone penetrates the hills.

Ralph
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Ralph
6 years ago

City + State tax’s now are well over 20% in CA on top of the already inflated dispensary prices. Yet, Jerry Brown announced a 5 Billion $ tax surplus last week and said it is “good for the state”. Now they threaten more tax’s. Not to mention what lack of ‘compassion’ has been shown taxing medicine!!! The only reason they are getting away with it is because it is outside Federal Law. Yet, that hypocrite balding midget ‘Governor’ Jerry Brown is the first one begging the Feds for disaster $$$. What a POS deal this has turned out to be. Now that’s bureaucratic liberal thinking for you. Thanks CA Dem’s for completely F&@*ing everything up as usual per their amateur SJW bulls%^@ and complete incompetence.

Joe Mota
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Joe Mota
6 years ago
Reply to  Ralph

Turn off your radio and go for a walk.

Emily
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Emily
6 years ago
Reply to  Ralph

So it’s bad that he has balanced the totally screwed budget left over from Arnold Schwarzenegger? And ended up with a surplus? Ha that’s funny- can’t please everyone I guess! Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.. although I agree they are taxing many small businesses too much, and the taxation on cannabis is ridiculous.

amiright
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amiright
6 years ago
Reply to  Emily

bINGO.

Rusty Cage
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Rusty Cage
6 years ago
Reply to  Emily

Jerry Brown was the right person at the right time. He saved the economy of California. Not only following Arnold’s term, but through Gray Davis’ term as well, when it all started going downhill. Then there was the 2008 recession and foreclosure crisis that hit us fairly hard as well.

I’ve met and talked with Governor Brown. One thing I can say is he’s a pretty intense guy and a thoughtful thinker, honest, obsessive, and driven, and beholden to no person, special interests, or lobbyists for that matter. He’s been keeping a low profile but believe me, he’s no fan of Trump, that’s for sure. They are moral and political opposite sides of the spectrum.

He’s retiring soon, to his ranch outfitted with solar power and more or less off the grid, to pursue a quieter life of his own.

Hoping
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Hoping
6 years ago
Reply to  Ralph

Hey, Jerry Brown, pour that tax surplus into the schools… Scotia has a gym and pool that was promised money years ago.

Central HumCo
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Hoping

Hoping,
The schools are not now, and never have been, short on $. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), are online. Don’t bother looking or hearing, or reading about a “Budget” Report. A Budget does not show the value of a corporation. In HumCo that means; when $330 million is “Invested” out of the People’s Public Treasury, the Tax Collector is acting in his personal capacity, as “Investing” isn’t on his job description – its not what a lawful government, on the land jurisdiction, in a republic, does. A corporation, yes, – but not a government.

hmm
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hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Ralph

But the republicans all voted for these heavy taxes.

Shel
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Shel
6 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Get off it already! No one read the fine print! Everyone was so hot to get the dope legal that they forgot the impact (nor cared!) on the medical users of cannabis and all they can do now is shrug and say ‘oops! sooooorry! we didn’t know!’ It wasn’t a flipping republican/ democrat nor liberal/conservative thing but a GREED FOR MONEY. The whole state legal game was all about $$ not compassion for medical users. I place this greed squarely on the recreational user who used sick and dying people to get their agenda pushed through.

festes haggins
Guest
festes haggins
6 years ago

A guy in the neighborhood was pissed last year when they offered him $1000 / lb. so he said” screw you I’ll wait it out “. Anybody want to guess what he ended up getting!

Pet Peeve
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Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  festes haggins

Brown weed?

Ice
Guest
Ice
6 years ago
Reply to  festes haggins

I’ll bet he’s getting $300 a pound for year-old vacuum packed pounds? Cause that’s what people are getting if they wait, and maybe even less..

Helllbilly
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Helllbilly
6 years ago

There is always 1 exception to the rule, but we all are watching as one by one the big dope growers are falling like dominoes. Houses in foreclosure, cars being repossessed. And the workers who will never get paid the money they are owed from last season. Good luck

Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
6 years ago

Goodness! Quit whining! Pot is water and sunlight, grown in a bag of soil… I hear it costs $150/lb to produce.

AND:

As I always say, the time to sell is when someone is buying! Best take what you can get, while the getting is good.

Tons of weed are leaving the area in trailers, motorhomes, semi rigs, and SUV’s every day! It’s a free for all, just like every year.

Good luck, there is always next year! Maybe you will all get organized…

lol
Guest
lol
6 years ago

growing directly in the bag is the dumbest practice I’ve seen. Talk bout cutting your legs off!

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago

Maybe 150 to grow, but then to trim ? Talking 300 dollar units, and that is roughly cost, based on your production numbers, though i know a few folks who could come under that number a bit, but the scale to make a profit with those margins is huge and then the production proce rises as more than just your own labor is needed.

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
6 years ago

38$

Gazoo
Guest
Gazoo
6 years ago

I see thousands of pounds left over from even last year, I see pounds going for a buck fifty all day, the big growers I know are going bankrupt and can’t make their growdozer payments or the land payments, I know guys who turned their entire crops into “ sauce” this year and can’t get rid of that either. It’s a dieing market, we need a black market revival or this place is toast. Never thought I’d say this

Will Smith
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Will Smith
6 years ago

Prices won’t be going up not with new legal multi-million square footage operations in Salinas valley. You can thank Steve de-fuckio of harborside for that one. Now with state laws allowing big corporate players to have the upper hand. It’s simple logic. Why in the world would anyone think there’s going to be any sort of a drought? Legal prices and black market prices will not be going up come summer period. Get over it. Federal crackdown is the only thing that can raise prices at this point.

hmm
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hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

I agree.

Antichrist
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Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Well , most smokers i know perfer organic perfer to have differant choices so i dont see huge chemicial massive farms hurting the ones who take time to grow it right. Infact i see organic product increasing in value as more and more massive farms turn out bland chemicial product. I cant wait to see them sued much like big tabaco over what the chemicials they use do to bodies as they are consumed

hmm
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hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Antichrist

Cannabis farmers are already fooling end users with marketing, they will continue to.

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Steve de-fuckio of harborside cannot grow anything better than run of the mill chem shwag in his big new scene.

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
6 years ago

Got to hit bottom before it will come back, bottom is when you lose money producing a,product for a year or so, but in this case we are not even close to bottom

lol
Guest
lol
6 years ago
Reply to  Lone ranger

it’s there. I know a bunch of newbs moving away this winter. They thought it be easy but has been a nightmare

s. moses
Guest
s. moses
6 years ago

as of last Friday there were only 120 +- farms in Humboldt County that were fully compliant and ready for the tag stamp and trace program. My feeling is that “legal weed” will have considerable value.how many of you have taken the tag and trace class, no names needed. good luck to all

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  s. moses

That’s just in Humboldt. Most of those farms are smaller. Compared to multi million square footage operations in Salinas valley. Just saying.comment image

It's a Farce
Guest
It's a Farce
6 years ago
Reply to  s. moses

Ha Ha Ha!! Yes- good luck running direct competition with huge and heavily-financed industrial production outfits. As you compete with them for the limited CA retail market! With licensed distribution outfits- can’t do direct business w/ the shops anymore! The small spike will be quickly smoothed out by commercial over-production and then a few years of prices set low enough to destroy all but the most heavily-funded corporate production organizations. Read a little bit of economic history- specifically the history of Standard Oil- to see how it works. Do not trust in your fantasies because these sharks do not share your wonderful feelings of compassion or brotherhood. It is unfolding just as the Napster dude intended with his fake “legalization” proposition. Sad that so many were swindled into voting for that scam. And sadder still that it is not revealed yet as the corporate scam that it is. They are already rolling out the same twisted media campaign across the country in preparation for federal “legalization”. And that federal scam will not help us either…We let them walk up and take it away…believing it would “make us free”. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!

Will Smith
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Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  It's a Farce

I agree 100%.

Pet Peeve
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Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  It's a Farce

Yep

Local
Guest
Local
6 years ago
Reply to  It's a Farce

That’s possible but will they be flooding the market in all the other states? I doubt it…..and that’s where most of the herb is sold. The people that are happy with making decent money on a small indoor are the ones I’ve noticed are doing fine. When you only have a small amount to move every couple months it’s much easier. Not as much over head too. If you have fire indoor people want it. It’s the greedy douches with thousands of mediocre pounds that’s profit margins are dwindling away…..

Franky
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Local

Yes agreed, and fire inns will always have a place in my inventory…🔥🔥🔥

zookeeper
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zookeeper
6 years ago
Reply to  It's a Farce

BINGO

Lost Croat Outburst
Guest
Lost Croat Outburst
6 years ago
Reply to  It's a Farce

So all the craft breweries (how many just in Humboldt?) were driven out of business by the mega-brewers? Oh wow, most weren’t. Some were bought out at a profit to owners. Oh, wow, I wonder if the same thing will happen with weed? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ad infinitum.

Perspective
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Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  s. moses

“will have considerable value”, when? LOL

hmm
Guest
hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  s. moses

Legal weed may have a good price tag, but it is only a tiny fraction of the wed that needs to be sold i order to keep our economy afloat.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago

Hrmm i have noticed a 2 point spike recently. Maybe find new buyers that arent trying to make 5 points off of you

JD
Guest
JD
6 years ago

Remember that dispensaries have up to 6 months to sell anything they bought before January 1. Most that I know of were stockpiling product. And as someone mentioned above, the Harborside operation and others like it will end up dominating the legal market because they have the financial resources to navigate all the legal hurdles. People were worried about the big multinational corporations coming in and taking over. Nope, just our local California behemoths.

Sickofem
Guest
Sickofem
6 years ago

I’m stoked. Growers are leaving in droves. My scumbag doper neighbor and his lazy wife had to go to work. They still get free social services but now they actually need them . Plus I can now legally walk into a store and buy weed, no more sketchy dealers , i dont care if i have to pay tax.

hmm
Guest
hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

If they are lazy, they couldn’t have been growers.

Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  hmm

That’s why the lazy growers need their meth and dope.

TC
Guest
TC
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

I totally agree with you !!!!

Perspective
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Perspective
6 years ago

“Growers are leaving in droves”, “we all are watching as one by one the big dope growers are falling like dominoes. Houses in foreclosure, cars being repossessed.”
Delusional much? LOL This is what you might want to happen, but it certainly is not reality.

Pet Peeve
Guest
Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

Yeah it is. Big growers in my area are perplexed. Trying to unload property and pounds. Dumping their permitting in process if they had one. Can’t grow like they used to with no repercussions if they didn’t. Buyers remorse on that 15mpg fancy tricked out Tundra. Can’t pay clippers. Things are definitely imploding.

Helllbilly
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Helllbilly
6 years ago
Reply to  Perspective

You obviously don’t know many growers.

Pet Peeve
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Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Helllbilly

You obviously don’t know me.

Helllbilly
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Helllbilly
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

I wasn’t replying to you. Pay attention to how the reply section works I was replying to”perspective”. He quoted me. I’m in total agreement with you. Too many people are oblivious to how our (Humboldt)
economy works.

Pet Peeve
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Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Helllbilly

Oops, sorry.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  Helllbilly

Obviously. Or maybe I don’t know any growers that have only been in the game the past 3 years. Most everyone I know that grows is not losing everything. They may not be growing this year, but they certainly are not going bankrupt.

Uhoh
Guest
Uhoh
6 years ago

Harborside and such will win because they are vertically integrated. Their dispensary is showing retail prices at $30-$60 an eighth ounce. At $40 that’s $5120 per pound. Add 38% tax to make it $7065 to the customer. Meanwhile the farmer probably got $500. Screwed again.

Pet Peeve
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Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Uhoh

Harborside produces its own clones , grows its own pounds and then sells them at gram prices in its own dispensary. The kind of production and profit not many can realize in Humboldt.

hmm
Guest
hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

They buy clones from Dark Heart and others. At least as of last spring, I was there and bought clones personally from harborside that were produced by dark heart.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
6 years ago
Reply to  hmm

According to reporting late last year, Harborside’s Salinas operations were having a helluva time avoiding contamination. They blame spray drift, but you can see from this quote that using clones seems to be part of the problem.

Gonna take a lot of climate manipulation to avoid using antifungals in Salinas greenhouses, imo. That will certainly eat up margins compared to true outdoor possible in other places.

“First, the farm began growing weed from seed, rather than risk buying cuttings, which are often dipped in pesticides. Second, Harborside installed massive ventilation systems to push filtered air through its greenhouses and keep pesticides from drifting in — much like how a wind tunnel keeps an indoor skydiver from hitting the ground.

It worked. After six months of transition time, Harborside Farms grew contaminant-free cannabis.”
http://www.greenstate.com/news/californias-farmland-dirty-legal-cannabis/

Bushytails
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Bushytails
6 years ago

I’m waiting for central valley corporations to drive the prices down so far that minimal local growing happens, and the associated stupidity goes away.

hmm
Guest
hmm
6 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

They will do just that, using the labor of illegal immigrants. Of course, without cannabis, this county will be nothing but vacation rentals and park service employees.

Loon
Guest
Loon
6 years ago

Have I ever read more woefull pity-pot people. SNIVEL. You folk have no idea what the hell is coming. I don’t see prophet in any of your Nick’s. Cal.leagal weed will be a seed to sale product. Do any of you have any idea how much that will cost? Yup, alot. Buyers were something alot of people took for granted. No need to have a real relationship….. HA, bet you wish you had the number of everyone you ever sold to. That is what it boils down to. Get with it , they have a black market in tobacco that thrives, ……duh.

Shel
Guest
Shel
6 years ago
Reply to  Loon

and with the impact of such a high and ridiculous tax, people that rely on dope as medicine will end up going to black market growers instead of staying with a dispensary that is ‘organic’/clean because they wont be able to pay the greed tax.

69 roadrunner man mogtx
Guest

Let the cards fall where they may sit back and watch

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
6 years ago

I think there is no doubt that the market for Humboldt weed has collapsed – and probably for weed in general. It might improve when the state system gets going. But 2018 is going to see a lot of hopes dashed. The county certainly could do some things to help out – like repeal Measure S (The dream tax) and make permits cheaper by dropping some of their unreasonable demands like class 4 roads. But this may be beyond the county’s ability to fix by this point. They had about 18 m
onths in which to convince people to leave the black market and get legal. For that to work most of the farmers had to join the system. Most did not. Estelle has been mildly upset with me for pointing out the dynamic at work, but by now it must be obvious. The county has to either make getting legal a lot more attractive, or being in the black market a lot less attractive. I don’t know that it will do either.

Rosalie
Guest
Rosalie
6 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Thank you for pointing this out to them. The fees associated with the permitting process are outrageous and put my family out of business. When we did the math last year at a higher price point for price per pound, we knew we could not afford to get a permit and stay at the smaller scale farm we enjoyed having. It is set up so the only way to make money is go huge. I hope that the supervisors can make some sort of change to make the permitting process more affordable. As far as I am concerned they are a huge part of the problem.

Helllbilly
Guest
Helllbilly
6 years ago

We should all hope for some big federal busts. Harborside, emerald family farms, oaksterdam, honeydew, etc. That will get the price back up for another year.

Pet Peeve
Guest
Pet Peeve
6 years ago
Reply to  Helllbilly

Really? Those are the people that are glutting the market ? Not the 15,000 non permitted grows producing the bulk of the pounds?

Umm
Guest
Umm
6 years ago
Reply to  Pet Peeve

Yes. All the permit getters I know have hundreds and hundreds of pounds and are complaining.. we’ve been living good on 25 plants a year for a number of years. Pretty silly how greedy people can be. Of course we grow for money, but not hundreds and hundreds. That’s greed. So welcome to the world of having to work for your living

groba dude osnt trustafarian
Guest
groba dude osnt trustafarian
6 years ago

I sold my Humboldt County home, for a nice profit, just in time apparently. I hate to leave, but you all are surrounded by pot growers, in Trinity, Mendo and Lake, and then there’s Butte, Nevada and Yuba… Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Nevada – how much is actually needed and who can produce this commodity for the lowest cost?

They will win out.

I think too many grow, and too many middlemen are sucking the life out of it, but I don’t grow, and I don’t smoke either!

I recommend smokers grow what they need themselves, and everyone else, find a new way to make a living.

Non-smokers don’t need any weed at all! Ever!

Dave Kirby
Guest
Dave Kirby
6 years ago

A lot of the drive to grow more potent product is based on the fact that true potheads grew tolerant of strains that we once thought were plenty stoney. The average new recreational user can grow weed that will have all the high they want so its questionable as to how much demand there will be for super strains. Cannabis “ordinare”will remain relatively cheap and abundant. As inhaling anything thats burning is not the best thing for our lungs I suspect edibles will become dominant in the marketplace. Just a guess. Holding on to product in hopes that prices will rise seems unrealistic in the face of rapidly expanding supply with fairly static demand.

Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
6 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

Like real estate, expanding supply, diminished demand.

2.6 MILLION for a dope farm in Willow Creek! Permits in place…

Good luck!

So him local
Guest
So him local
6 years ago

Everyone should just grow a seed crop this year . Stock up and make ALL the humboldt pot worthless.
Pretty easy to shut it down really.
Then maybe we can get a real round table discussion going.

Hello
Guest
Hello
6 years ago

So, this is just more of the same WTO type policy’s for the U.S. gov to bankrupt and demorilize communities. The U.S. Gov. and WTO nations have been playing this supply and demand game with nations across the world for years and years. In Jamaica they flooded the market with subsidized powered milk, putting most local dairys out of business, then jacked the price up to unaffordable rates as soon as there wasn’t any competition. The canna game is no different. And cannabis has never been more ‘illegal’ then after ‘leagalization’. Did you think they were going to make it easy for anyone? Did you think the gov. Was a fair player? And not completely partial to Big money, and big Biz.. think again.

yesmeagain
Guest
yesmeagain
6 years ago

You have all made piles of money illegally for decades, never paid taxes, lived your outlaw life, and now you’re crying. I believe cannabis should be legalized so that both medical and recreational users will not be made into criminals.

Supposing there was NO black market? Wouldn’t the honest growers who went legal be making money now?

Tanuki
Guest
Tanuki
6 years ago

If your herb is free of pesticides and mold/ mildew there are 2 places in Mendocino county that will buy it. 1,300 to 1,500 a pound. Flowcanna in Laytonville, and mendocanna? In Hopland. There’s a 6 month moratorium on the track and trace program. Make some calls, be proactive. The only people coming to you are middlemen. They are keeping the prices low. It doesn’t help when people like Tim Blake start crowing about cheap herb. 500$ pounds.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  Tanuki

Interesting. As I understand or not, the regulations, cannabis must go from the farmer to a distributer. A farmer can not sell direct anymore, unless they have a distributers license. Is this not how it works?

Bottom line
Guest
Bottom line
6 years ago

In Canada u can get a permit to grow over 500,000 pounds. Its also federally legal there. The only U.S based cannabis businesses that will survive are linked to Canada. Canada is already shipping to Germany and Italy. Game Over California. Stop wasting your time. Start selling Oranges on the freeway.

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  Bottom line

Lots of Canadian companies in Las Vegas and more on the way.

Dude
Guest
Dude
6 years ago

Load up on those weed stocks soon to be outta work growers. 10-50k now in the stock market may be a huge sum in a few years when federally legal and legal across the globe. Mjx index, cannaroyalty, canopy growth, aphira Aurora, Friday night inc, hold for awhile or at least till legalization in Canada this summer, thank me later.