Oregon’s Overproduction of Pot

white hairs on marijuana against blue skyAs the price per pound plummets, cannabis farmers in Humboldt have been worried. Now, as their economic reality is beginning to affect that of the community, other business owners are starting to feel the economic earthquake that is hitting this region. Local business owners of non-marijuana related businesses in Southern Humboldt are privately telling us of drops in sales of 40 to 70%.

A good part of the price drop has been the enormous amount of marijuana produced both here and elsewhere. For years, growers have been increasing the number of pounds they produced. For the last two years, many have been left with unsold product. This year, almost no farmers are increasing their production capabilities.

The inevitable result of too much cannabis produced for the legal market is that many of the pounds are sold on the underground market (also saturated) which moves marijuana to states where producing it is dangerous because it is illegal and thus prices are higher.

Some legal growers have expressed hopes that law enforcement would crack down on the underground market in hopes that would keep prices up in the legal market. (Note: this could backfire as many farmers who are in the permit process and are trying to be completely legal continue to divert some pounds to the black market as they struggle to bring in enough money to make the transition without failing.)

Oregon, which began legal sales of recreational marijuana in 2015, is already grappling with the same issue as our community.

Yesterday, AP News released an article on Oregon’s top federal prosecutor’s response to the overproduction of marijuana in its state. This article while not addressing the financial impacts of growing more than the market can bear gives a hint of what might be the direction that other federal prosecutors, including in California, might head as Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to take a tough stance on marijuana.

According to the article, Oregon’s top U.S. Attorney, Billy Williams, explained his views

“Here’s what I know in terms of the landscape here in Oregon, and that is, we have an identifiable and formidable marijuana overproduction and diversion problem,” he said Friday.

Williams added: “And make no mistake about it, we’re going to do something about it.”

Because there was no cap on the number of marijuana farmers, an expert on marijuana policy and a former professor, Seth Crawford, argues in the article this creates an “overproduction problem.” According to the piece, he estimates that farmers in his state produce three times that amount bought legally. The article continues

“You created this huge industry that has nowhere to put its product,” Crawford said.

“If you were an investor and you had just dropped $4 million into a (marijuana) grow and you had thousands of pounds of flower that was ready to go but you had nowhere to sell it … if you want any of your money back, the only thing you can do is sell it on the black market,” he said. “It was a system designed for failure.”

Read the entire article here.

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Taurus Ballzhoff
Guest
Taurus Ballzhoff
6 years ago

I think it was me who said that small growers are on the wrong end of this… Overproduction is going to leave some out of the game entirely.

It is not too late to find work in other areas of the industry. Check Indeed.com using “Cannabis” as a search term…

Here is a newsletter from Angel list.com

https://angel.co/newsletters/trillion-dollar-startup-opportunities-011818?email_uid=451298909&utm_campaign=talent_newsletter-newsletter&utm_content=view-online&utm_medium=email&utm_source=talent_newsletter-newsletter&utm_term=

Good luck going forward!

River Rat
Guest
River Rat
6 years ago

Grow excellent weed and the buyers “Friends” will come. We might not sell Lbs. But selling an oz. helps with out the budget. Don’t expect to get the price you used to get.

Value and quality.
Guest
Value and quality.
6 years ago
Reply to  River Rat

Oregon weed rivals the best. I bought a half in Roseburg and it was fresh and clean. Good quality. Going back up in two weeks and buying a pound. Once locals find out Oregon weed has quality for a cheap price here will be a steady stream of buyers.

Just Asking
Guest
Just Asking
6 years ago

From a dispensary or black market?

Joe Pendleton
Guest
Joe Pendleton
6 years ago

Local pounds are 400 o can’t see it any cheaper up there

H. Charlize
Guest
H. Charlize
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Pendleton

Nope but there is a thriving aaa market. They get a we bit better $$ than here for their aaa’s. And their ins are some of the top in the industry. Sure the mids and lows have dropped out. They are putting us to shame quality wise. And they aren’t just flooded with O.G. & and S.D. they are working genetics hard, and squishing the best rosins. We really need to step it up. Their regulatory framework is reasonable in price and easier to negotiate. The days of 12+ 100 x 24 greenies in beds full of fuel are almost over folks. O.g. isn’t all that. There will be a AAA market here as well. But the dispensary’s have to push that. Go to hopland…total b.s. on the shelf. No pride in craftsmanship there. San Jose, sac, same story, just hustling cheap mids n lows at as AAA prices. That will stop eventually. The public will demand great pot and great flavors..look at Vegas. All over Instagram with celebs paying high dollar for bomb weed. Integrity and excellence is all that can save the small farmer. Big grows are for oils and cartrige refills. Oregon, Colo, and Nevada have proven that…step up your game. Don’t give out your flavors(cuts). And if you bought them from the cut man prepare to give up and get out of the game.

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago

Quality is in the eye of the individual. They have an over production of lows and mids, and not enough AAA. Any tool can put a plant in the ground and do full sun mids. If you have the fire you are getting top dollar!

47
Guest
47
6 years ago

Exactly, the majority Or produces is the middle shelf at best. No doubt there’s a few folks up there doing it right and producing proper AAA fire but definitely not on the scale we do here.

H. Charlize
Guest
H. Charlize
6 years ago
Reply to  47

I really haven’t seen that much true fire here.last couple of tarps n cups ok at best…our techniques are outdated, and our bulk commercial strains are just that. Great inns are almost nonexistant. And why? Its just not truly logistically and financially feeseble to grow great pot in forested steep mountainsides. We need to humble ourselves and begin to learn again. We are no longer the quality capital we once were. Its been said before..any asshole can plug some cuts in beds and grow a shit ton of pot..hoard your best strains boys n girls. Don’t give em away. Do you share your wife? Your husband? Your bank accounts? You make em…You keep em.

Patriot in Willits
Guest
Patriot in Willits
6 years ago
Reply to  River Rat

As much as I like the “Field of Dreams” reference, it only makes sense if you play catch with your father in your patch.

Mysteria01
Guest
Mysteria01
6 years ago

The pot industry has been changing for several years now…..anyone who pays attention to economics learns to evolve accordingly. We are not victims if we take personal responsibility for our own lives and anyone who cries now only cries because they need to place blame. Humboldt county has a heartbeat all its own and now Humboldt county is going to have to join the rest of the planet and people are going to have to join the workforce LOL.

Sickofem
Guest
Sickofem
6 years ago

Greedy growers everywhere. I relish watching greedy assholes around here finally get a dose of reality.they actually have to get up and go to work year round , not just a few months a year. The wives can no longer afford the lifestyle and now they actually need those benefits they were fraudulently claiming before. I don’t give a shit if a few shops close either.

TwoFingers
Guest
TwoFingers
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

That’s great. Wishing financial ruin on your fellow community members. You’re a real gem. Do you not realize that the downward spiral affects the general economy, leaving everyone with less to live on?

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  TwoFingers

Sickofem was not “wishing financial ruin”. He was pointing out the natural end result of spreading the pot wealth from a closed clique of ” gunrunner mentality” where their evil was tolerable because it was small (and their violence kept the profits to themselves) to a wide open green rush. The worse that be said of his post is there is a natural sense of satisfaction that the smaller group who used to abuse others in the pursuit of their own pot of gold are now feeling the same abuse themselves. And the more they scream and complain, the more they satisfy those who had to deal with the frustration of obnoxious, self righteous growers of earlier decades.

You were ugly neighbors. It is just right, that having been uninterested in your non pot neighbors while you did what you wanted and flipped off those who objected, that you now have to deal with many multiples of yourself in turn. That longed for open society you harped on isn’t so bright and shiny up close and personal.

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

Bullshit. There was and is a wide range of personalities involved in cannabis production. Everybody was not evil. Good things happened and businesses thrived. You can’t advertise your good works if your job is illegal. The logging boom resulted in massive environmental degradation which exceeded the pot industry by far; nothing and no one is perfect. “Sickofem” and “Guest” are bitter, nasty people, jealous about the success of others and the perceived fantasy of a life of indolence. Like John Hardin, they gloat over the eagerly anticipated collapse of their own community.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Pot delusions of grandeur. Everything was all rosy in the good ol’ days. Yup.

That is such a juvenile response. “Don’t listen. They are just jealous of you.” Just like junior high. Might just be that calling ugly is because ugly is there to be called. The driving on roads paid for by others. The misuse of subsidized utilities. The chorus claiming it’s perfectly fine to damage the environment because others are worse (the juvenile “He started it first”.) The inflation of property prices that non tax paying suppliers of illegal goods can afford. The “to hell with anyone else” taking of water. The bringing in of employees paid under the table with all the problems they bring for others to solve. A giant chorus of “me, me, me.” Well now you can live with the result because it’s all “yours, yours, yours.”

Al Capone was was finally jailed on tax evasion. Pot growers should have been treated likewise. And weren’t. My community was already heading for collapse due to people like you decades ago. It was as inevitable as gravity. All that’s happened is it has now expanded to encompass you too. But you wouldn’t listen then and won’t now. You didn’t care about me or mine when you should have. You still don’t.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Seriously, you are wrong. Sure there is some like you describe. Let me inform you that there are many many that arent . A few years ago i came to this area burnt out on just about everything. Some friends put me on a farm, it healed me. Sure farming uses water . Sure people need to develop their land to make it useable for their needs, but not everyone does so in manors that destory the land. Many , myself included clean up other peoples sences after they leave. It is hard work for farmers, long hours , if you do things right and care about what you are doing and the product you are putting out. I make less doing this work then i did before, alot less, but i make enough to help those in need and family. I see comments like yours and see the hate , the bitterness of someone who isnt happy with their life and seeks others to be just as miserable as you appear to be. That is not what life is about. Infact it is unhealthy and i suggest seeking some help.

47
Guest
47
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Your comment sounds more like “me, me, me” actually means you, you, you. Lmao, isn’t it ironic

H. Charlize
Guest
H. Charlize
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Well said

Karma
Guest
Karma
6 years ago
Reply to  TwoFingers

That’s right. After years of spending 40-50 an 1/8th just so some [edit] can buy Ugs. I got no sympathy.

Lucky Bandit
Guest
Lucky Bandit
6 years ago
Reply to  TwoFingers

The majority of Sohum “non-marijuana related businesses” are owned by folks related to the marijuana business.

Dave Kirby
Guest
Dave Kirby
6 years ago
Reply to  Lucky Bandit

Every business in Humboldt County from the gas stations to the car dealers is somewhat dependent on pot money.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Dave Kirby

And isn’t that just too sad. Like the Irish building an economy on tax evasion to the whole world relying on stock speculation in 1929, way too much went down the pot hole instead of reasonable development for all.

I wonder what will happen. Whether we can get over the pot boom or, like Detroit, struggle with coming to terms with a different world. Pot growers won’t all disappear but the rushers certainly will. They will leave a mess behind. Now what?

Vern W
Guest
Vern W
6 years ago
Reply to  Lucky Bandit

Truth right there, all business are dirty pot growers, I see the 76 gas man getting dirt at dazeys and just rent it owners doing the same. Let’s be real honest please…..everyone growing weed

Womengrowtoo
Guest
Womengrowtoo
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

The wives?
I guess you missed the memo.

Joe Pendleton
Guest
Joe Pendleton
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

Local economy is down as much as 70%. I’m sick of people moving in and trying to change things. There is no money to be made here. Less grower money in the pot the less retail sales. When there is no money there are no taxes being paid and now we have to fire all the cops you hired to make your changes. [edit] There was less hard drug use and stupidity in general.

Helllbilly
Guest
Helllbilly
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Pendleton

Pendleto. Truth

Bmcb
Guest
Bmcb
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Pendleton

No there was not less hard drug use or stupidity, stupidity comes with the over use of drugs ,alcohol, nicotine, pot and greed. Hemp can be used for all kinds of things to help grow the economy. marijuana can be helpful for medical use

Old farmer
Guest
Old farmer
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

You sound like one of those people who thinks seasonal work is easy. Resentful caustic and jeolous. Let me tell you that growing pot is and was NEVER a few months. Farmers on any crop barely get 3 months off. Now if one is growing for just 3 plants and buys those 3 starts elsewhere ….okay… but…not fulltime.

rollin21
Guest
rollin21
6 years ago
Reply to  Sickofem

sickofem, I relish watching hater assholes hate on me as I drive by in my truck without a care in the world. When the weed game fully falls apart I will take some time for myself and enjoy this money; I’m thinkin Costa Rica. Too bad you’ll still be miserable and finding excuses to hate on other successful people while you’re stuck in a dead end job.

Ha ha
Guest
Ha ha
6 years ago

You asked for you got it, so now everyone is fucked

DC
Guest
DC
6 years ago

your a broke ass loser of course your sick of em

Brian
Guest
Brian
6 years ago

How cheap can you grow a pound?

Why must growing pot be so expensive?

What growing models are being followed and created?

I’ve seen so many permitted pot farms (in OR & CA) using smart pots it makes me wonder where the smart farmers are.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian

Smart pots….. more like idiot pots.

LabeledaNazi
Guest
LabeledaNazi
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian

The reason lbs of weed are expensive is because it’s a mind altering drug. pharmaceutical company’s will call it medicine and charge that at ridiculous prices. No more cost to grow marijuana than tomatoes

River Rat
Guest
River Rat
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

I agree, Pot grows its’self , but it needs extra attention. Deer don’t eat tomato plants. Usually
people don’t steal tomato plants. Not to mention the FEDS.

LabeledaNazi
Guest
LabeledaNazi
6 years ago
Reply to  River Rat

True dat! Fences keep out deer….unfortunately they don’t keep out FEDS!

Perspective
Guest
Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  River Rat

Deer 100% eat tomato plants

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

Keep telling yourselves that. If you think growing tomatoes is the same ad growing AAA you have no idea what you are talking about, and your point is moot!

Sleepy Alligator
Guest
Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

Man you really are a clueless bunch! The one and only reason pot is expensive is because it is illegal. If tomatoes were illegal do you think they would still cost $1.99/lb?

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian

38$ to grow a pound if you’re frugal and attentive.

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago
Reply to  Redwood Dan

And growing REGGIE!

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  Redwood Dan

Yeah and what is your time worth ? How much does that unit cost to harvest cure properly trim, package ? Very short sighted.

Stormy
Guest
Stormy
6 years ago

I weep for the scum of the Earth. No, I don’t. Infidels all.

River Rat
Guest
River Rat
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

Never weep for the bottom dwellers.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago

Just wait until Steve deAngelo owner of harborside and his buddy’s get those ten million square foot farms pumping down in the Salinas valley. You think saturation was a big issue the last few years and this year aswell? Lol just wait! “Industry enthusiasts say that legalization isn’t causing more cannabis to flow out of state” Yeah freaking right! As the black market becomes more saturated here and the price lowers people that would be happy taking 1000-1500 for units here are now taking bigger risks to move their bulk out of state where they can get more. I am from the east coast and the past 3 years the price back east has PLUNGED. Why has the market price gone down so much especially in east coast states where it is NOT legal? Because those states are consuming the excess that we are producing. Come on sessions go get them! The regulatory frame work for legal cannabis is NOT working and it is NOT being kept in state and currently is a free for all! It’s not legal untill the feds say so, and they will ban fiat currency and introduce a mandatory digital “FEDCOIN” based on block chain technology and ban purchases of cannabis and CBD on everybody’s FEDCOIN wallets before legalizing or rescheduling. Now big pharma will produce patented CBD and cannabis products which they will make lots of money from. Why do you think morphine, and prescription opiates are legal but heroin is not? You can’t patent heroin or meth but amphetamine salts are sold via legal prescriptions for ADHD and ADD. Everyone who voted for legalization should thank themselves cause they essentially ruined it for everyone else. RANT OVER.

Sheldon Norberg
Guest
Sheldon Norberg
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Not so, sir. BAYER patented heroin back in 1881, and has maintained the patent all this time, waiting for legalization.

Hope the CGA lawsuit for the 1 acre cap shakes it up.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago

I stand corrected. Thanks.

Bodhi
Guest
Bodhi
6 years ago

A patent is good for only twenty years…

Bob
Guest
Bob
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Well said and totally accurate.

Sleepy Alligator
Guest
Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  Bob

Actually most of that rant is inaccurate. It’s just some non-factual spewing of one know-it-all’s distorted imagination.

Lost Croat Outburst
Guest
Lost Croat Outburst
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

“Rant over.” Promise?

Sleepy Alligator
Guest
Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

News Flash! Those Salinas greenhouses Harborside owns have been up and running for almost two years now. And the only market that weed is affecting is the Harborside Dispensary market.

Antichrist
Guest
Antichrist
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Imf which we are a part of doesnt allow a goverment to create a digital fedcoin persay. However they are working on one for global markets that will replace the usd as the international currency. They are supposed to have one ready for testing within 5 years. Anyways if the fed did come out with something like that and tried blocking wallets from purchesses. Whats to stop someone from buying a differantly named product and reciving something else ? There is zero way to control something like that, pipe dreams for those who wish to have total control is all it is

Michael berkery
Guest
Michael berkery
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Lsd patened by sandoz cocaine patent is merk pharma

H. Charlize
Guest
H. Charlize
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Salinas farms are already going under.. wasted dollars.. most players trying to run from there and quick..too high costs taxes and labor..many guys sold here, bought there, and now are selling there..fools. Steve couldn sell in a year what he could produce in a year. In Salinas. They are going to fail as well..stoners in suits are not farmers.

LabeledaNazi
Guest
LabeledaNazi
6 years ago

Let it all fail. Back to 1983 all over again!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  LabeledaNazi

That won’t happen either. What is likely to happen is that a section of mortaged property will be abandoned, property values will slip some. Some businesses will feel the pinch and close. As will some schools.

I doubt whether many retirees are going to take advantage of the property value drop. Nor will many welfare people leave as California will still be best payer. The country will have to readjust to the loss of property taxes. I expect they will go their usual plan to increase of fees, sales tax, etc except it will not work out as well as in the past as, while government employees and those sold on being owed some benefit or other from the government eill support it, there will be a smaller pool to pony up the money.

Lone ranger
Guest
Lone ranger
6 years ago

Flooded? Ain’t seen nothin yet!! lmao

Dani Seakey
Guest
6 years ago

FEDCOIN cannot keep people from growing the weed. Everyone here has the love of money syndrome that keeps them from being truly free to realize that marijuana is and always will be the great equalizer.

Squaw fish
Guest
Squaw fish
6 years ago
Reply to  Dani Seakey

Is that a trafficked hooker?

Covelo or busted
Guest
Covelo or busted
6 years ago

We done killed the Golden Goose , son!

Ice
Guest
Ice
6 years ago

Nevada and Arizona have huge shortages of legal pot and are scrambling to buy some. Vegas papers remark. Why has no one here with too much looked into that? I think it’s ridiculous that there’s too much here and in Oregon and not enough just a few hours away..

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Ice

As more and more states legalize it, if there is no show down with the Feds for transporting it, it will become as cheap as poinsettias at Chrismas.

rolling hills
Guest
rolling hills
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Why don’t you try driving 100 lbs. across the border before you say something stupid like that? The Feds are not going to legalize it anytime soon. Guaranteed. And even if they ever do, most of the individual (Red States) states – and there are plenty of them – that haven’t legalized it yet, won’t. Because “legalization” is easier through a State Initiative Process (Citizen vote), and most, if not all, of those remaining states don’t have that process available to their voters. It would have to go through the State Legislative body which is way more difficult to accomplish, particularly in the Bible Belt, South and most of the Rust Belt. So, weed will have a market, especially AAA quality, and be viable well past when you’re dead and gone.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  Ice

All cannabis produced in state must be tracked and traced and sold within state. One of the conditions of the Obama era cole memo which had language to protect states rights when it came to cannabis (before it was recinded) was that cannabis produced in a state that legalized must stay in that state and never cross state lines.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
6 years ago

According to CDFA estimates from a study released last year, California growers produced about 13.5 million pounds in 2016.

2.5 million were consumed in-state. The rest was exported: 11 million pounds.

The North Coast region, running from Del Norte to Sonoma or so (but not including Trinity), produced about 4.15 million of that, per CDFA.

The valley and the foothills surrounding it (including Trinity–what the CDFA report calls the Sacramento Valley and Intermountain regions) together produced 4.875 million.

Leaving aside Trinity and some towns allowing warehouse growing, there is virtually no path to licensure for existing growers throughout that entire area. It seems like an awfully large production area to try to shut down.

Whatever your opinion on weed, considering what the CDFA report says strongly suggests that significant social impacts are likely to result from the trainwreck now unfolding–impacts that haven’t been given their due in the public conversation about regulation.

Shel
Guest
Shel
6 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Meyer

Those are interesting numbers. Not being mean, really am interested Please share source?

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago

Exactly!!!!!! Most of these license/permit holders if not almost all that entered into the permitting process were operating illegally prior. People are always real quick to forget where they came from. It’s hypocrital and weak as hell. Take Emerald Flamer Farms for instance that dude Patrick Murphy who’s an owner operated illegally prior to getting permitted, same with HoneyDew Farms. The permitting process is extremely expensive and alot of people got played and tried to permit properties that didn’t fit the criteria because they didn’t do their homework so they ended up having to spend hundreds of thousands restoring the property then were told the had to move their permit somewhere else. Plus black market ganja can’t be sold in the rec shops because it is not tracked and traced. The license/permit holders wanting to have black market farms eliminated aren’t understanding the landscape of the industry that they are participating in. Big corporate legal farms are their real competition and the ones that will saturate the legal cannabis market and push wholesale prices down. These big corporate players have the capital to straight lose money for years and sell product at all time lowes that no one else can compete with untill smaller players are pushed out of the business. Then they can have a monopoly on the market and buy out all the smaller craft producers aswell. Welcome to Big AG, and big business in general ! That’s America for you though!

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Well if the “mostly legal” farmers are selling some of their product on the black market and it’s going out of state directly or indirectly, and they are at the same time “expressing hopes that law enforcement would crack down on the underground market” as stated above in the artical then they are in my opinion being hypocritical. So are most humans though. Thank you for your website.

Sleepy Alligator
Guest
Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Speaking of hypocritical you stated this in your above comment: “Come on Sessions go get them!”

Farce
Guest
Farce
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

You are correct about there being no track and trace. Yet Humboldt County permitted some very big grows last year. Where did they think all that weed would go- to legal stores within CA?! Truth is they knew but didn’t care. And that’s why the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and the members of the Planning Department who signed off on those permits should be included in a major federal RICO criminal investigation and prosecution. Example- Riverside Farms in Shively was given a 12 acre permit. They dry-farmed on the riverbank somewhere around 20,000 pounds. They are still holding some 10-15 thousand pounds in refrigerated containers on their farm. Do you think for a second they will throw that weed away? The BS story is that it will “all be made into extract”. Ha Ha! They are presently working with negotiators who have a long history of sending many boxes (that’s 100 pounds) into interstate traffic. So yes, expect those east coast prices to weaken if not buckle and crumble. The supervisors have done everything possible to destroy small growers while rewarding the biggest and most offensive growers. We are only beginning to see the results of their short-sighted and greedy tax and permit decisions. The next round will be many lost mortgages and desperation all around. Meanwhile the worst of the industrial mega-grow criminals pose as permitted and legal citizens happily sipping champagne…with their new friends in local government. Gallegos will be there celebrating as will the puppet-masters behind CCV-H…Emerald Scamily, Honeydew Farms, True Humboldt and others will laugh as the county burns. Greed is on full-tilt go! If you didn’t pump mercilessly out of the dying creeks during that 5 year drought then you were a fool I guess!

joeblow
Guest
joeblow
6 years ago
Reply to  Farce

The farm in Shively is called Eel River Organics, they claim to be making extracts, aka c02 oil, there weed was such crap thats all you could make from any of it. Now they are pushing it for low prices to beat out the competition. Also they got the green light back in 2016 so they grew thousands of pounds under a county affidavit that they sold illegally to allow them to pay the cultivation tax this year. What a scam. The previous owner of this farm was featured in a bust on pot cops. They had corn growing over many acres and mixed in a few weed plants here and there in between the corn, they used this to claim they were growing 7+ acres of weed and were able to get the county to give them a special permit to allow them to grow this massive amount. Total crooked, allowed the county to sell out all the small farmers in favor of working with the biggest most illegal growers out there. These people were then given there permits sometimes with less requirements or less information than they later required the rest of us to provide. All so they could take in huge amounts of tax money and fund there new bureaucracy.

Emerald Family Farms, Honeydew Farms, etc they are all selling illegally. Theirs just no way not too with that much product and no market to buy it.

broksi
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  joeblow

yeah I heard the eel river organics pulled 15k pounds this year on their 12 acre permit… has anyone ever even seen their product locally? fuck no. these guys are old school definitely pushing major weight interstate. Last i heard em family farms was basically offering to sell bulk sauce on instagram because they cant move this shit! “make me an offer, great prices on BULK!” seriously caliofrnia cant smoke through hundreds of lbs of mid grade russet mite terpless concentrate . This shit is too funny. legalization was basically for all the mega growers who had be making a killing over the past decade to “go legit” and clean their cash. we were all sold a story about how this was going to help ma and pa weed farmers, lol. yeah right. everything is happening as intended.

bearjew
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bearjew
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

the legal scam is a total joke now that the feds in dreads are baaaack…. hope feds don’t get mom n pop just the legal acreages… on “prime ag” bwhaha

Sad the old schoolers who did it right for decades are on their way out… some were dicks but most r great people! Weed is God’s creation…. prison industrial complex feeds off of it… not Libertarian.

Brian
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Brian
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

I think the first five – 10 years of permitted growing will be absolute blood-shedding. ( Hence my opines of dropping production prices)

After that, I think there will be empires and estates of marijuana, just as wine.

Good luck ya’ll.

Just Saying
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Just Saying
6 years ago
Reply to  Brian

Agree. Ten years of freaking mayhem.

Farce
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Farce
6 years ago
Reply to  Just Saying

Agreed. With major eradication campaigns to begin shortly. Many acts of desperation coming soon- thieving, killings and suicides. After that period nearly all production will be owned by estates controlled by mega-millionaires and most of that will be in the Central Valley. See the major production just now being ramped up in SoCal! Too bad you didn’t sell out last year. The stream of suckers coming into Humboldt has slowed to a trickle. This area actually doesn’t pencil out for the future massive grows. Enjoy your wonderful “legalization” everybody!!

Humboldt OG
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Humboldt OG
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

I had a collective that was formed with the state in 2016 as a non profit.
A collective is a legal document that creates members in a organization to produce cannabis.
This collective does not have to be a registered company, it just has to be a formal agreement between members. Reasonable compensation is allowed in the law, this technically meant that you could run an organization and charge your members a fee to compensate you the grower for your time and money spent. This was not considered income because it was compensation. Obviously the way this law was written is very much in the gray area. However, you cannot assume that these collective had broken any law. In the end cops realized that potentially every grow was setup with this sort of defense or could be and that would keep them out of jail, every lawyer knows about how this works, cops do too. thats why they didn’t bust grows and had to look for alternative crimes i.e. environmental or criminal charges. Its also why in the end the state had to do everything it could to shut down collectives and get rid of prop 215. Getting rid of collectives is illigal, prop 215 was a voter initiative and we cannot have the legislator just changing our laws without a vote of the people. This was the outcome of when SB 420 tryed to do similar things and change prop 215.

As for paying taxes, once you register your non profit you will be given a EIN number allowing you to file income tax, cannabis businesses need to be mindful of IRS 280e but are still allowed to take deductions and file income tax on state / federal level. Once you get your sellers permit, you can pay sales tax on all your sales. As a collective not selling to another dispensaries or manufacturer with a sellers license you would be required to pay the sales taxes on your sales.

Many people had been paying all these taxes the entire time and continue. If the cannabis company has not done this they will not get a final state license since the state will review to see if you had been paying taxes.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Ding Dong
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Ding Dong
6 years ago
Reply to  Humboldt OG

If you read prop 64 the language states that once approved by voters it will regulate and override all existing mj laws.

bearjew
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bearjew
6 years ago
Reply to  Humboldt OG

so dumb…. legalization is criminalization… total bs… sign up to be raided by feds…? Nothanks

MendoMan
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MendoMan
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

Humboldt og is right! Big business has done what he’s saying with lots of industry’s. One of rocksfellers tactics was sell oil bellow market value till the competition failed. At this point and the way the law is set up it’s really ingenious they’ve made it legal with regulation and knowing a lot aren’t going to follow. What they’ve enabled is a massive money grab for people trying to go legal and permitted as prices continue to crash everyone will go broke paving the way for big business to come in and finish whoever is left standing off. I haven’t grown indoor for a year because the price is damn near so close or to bellow production value. I won’t be growing next year because the price of outdoor is so low. What I will be doing is finding another profession. Everyone is a marijuana professional these days theirs no money in it!

hmm
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hmm
6 years ago

“Because there was no cap on the number of marijuana farmers, an expert on marijuana policy and a former professor, Seth Crawford, argues in the article this creates an “overproduction problem.””

The numbers of farms do not need to be capped, only the size of farms. Seems everyone wants to be a multimillionaire.

DELUSIONAL LIBERAL
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DELUSIONAL LIBERAL
6 years ago

test

Rumbustious
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Rumbustious
6 years ago

It seems likely that marijuana farming will become just another everyday sort of agriculture, like growing corn or wine grapes. That means plenty of hard work and a moderate return on investment. It will no longer be a get rich quick casino where you can become inordinately wealthy over a short period of time. Imagine a price of, say, $100/lb. If you grow a tnousand pounds, you get $100,000. That’s not trivial, but yes, it isn’t a million. Expect to become an ordinary hard-working farmer.

Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
Guest
Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
6 years ago

One thing I’ll admit is addicts are good at getting their fix, but the irony is they blew their own market out.

Looking forward to buying cheap foreclosures once weed and weed people are gone.

Drugs are bad news and drug culture is bad.

Loon
Guest
Loon
6 years ago

This the gang of whine. Let’s see buyers flocked here because our product was superior. No warehouses here. Now you all are crying over Ware houses in Salinas and elsewhere. Has any one seen the product? Does anyone realize with the taxes from City,county and state that that will put leagal pot basically available to the nonexsistant middle class. Half the people holding 215’s can’t afford the store. Where they going to go? Where they used to go before Alla this crap, their local dealer. Always was one always will be one. History will win out on this. Always does repeat itself right? Just like any public underground commerce, a bump in the road(leagalizing it) then in very little time it’s business as usual. You have to remember who your customers were, and just invite them back. Let them know it is business as usual with same Superior product they have always counted on. Five yesrs? Ten? What world are you in? Really.

Joshsour
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Joshsour
6 years ago
Reply to  Loon

Oh yes, remember when. Don’t be complacent my friend, I wouldn’t hold to strong to that pipe dream of the return of the great “yesteryear”. See times have changed and regardless of what happens farming will be all over state now. Not just forced Into the hills in the triangle. Let’s not forgot the state law allows for 6 plants a person and as a experienced farmer I’m sure you’re aware how much 6 plants of sungrown can produce with little to no effort.
Times are not only changing, the have changed. It’s time to grasp the reality of the situation and make plans for the future. It’s not advised to sit back and wait for the black market to boom again. If there is money to be made in it than there will be lots of people in the game trying to make that money. When there isn’t money to be made because it’s saturated that will be because the legal market has equalized the price and it just won’t be worth it.

Food for thought……

Drone pollinators inc.
Guest
Drone pollinators inc.
6 years ago
Reply to  Joshsour

That six plants may be a state law, but thousands of cities as well as many counties do not allow it. One ounce in possession which means you will also need a safe house.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Loon

And the old growers are such a minority now. In this last year, the woods to the south, west and east of me have been clear cut in patches for pot grows. I was notified yesterday that the last patch to the north is now going to be a grow. That is in one year. There must be thousands of these things going on. It can’t just be here.

A single person crapping on the environment is barely noticible. Thousands are another story. It’s not that the older guys were better. There were just so many fewer of them. Now there is going to be a traffic jam of growers in competion.

Scooter
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Scooter
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest

I am surrounded by unpermitted mega grows and with legalization my legal mmj cottage biz is dead. I hear buldozers all day already and its only Feb. I think it is time to make trouble for em all. $10,000 a day abatement would shut it all down, and save the land for the next generation.

Farce
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Farce
6 years ago
Reply to  Scooter

Agreed! And contrary to Kym’s article where she says that production is not being increased due to overproduction? Well- all I see is production being increased all around me and all over Humboldt and Mendocino. It’s a mad dash and this year must surely be the market crash. Of course the huge outfits that are run by very-wealthy organizations are already braced for a few years of product being sold at below the cost of production. That is the only correction we will see. It will take some ugly years of under-financed normal grower families losing all they have. Only then will the production level out. And the remaining already-wealthy investors will then feed upon each other in a consolidation process. The future is very ugly, unless you are in that 1% already. Salvage what you can and get out while you can! Our “community” will be dominated by estates owned by absent wealthy people and full of crime and desperation. Enjoy the fruits of your “legalization”!!

Will Smith
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Will Smith
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

They could be buying less because now buying thousands of clones is not economical, so they are buying mother plants early on or cracking seeds and making their own cuts for the year to reduce overhead? Just a thought.

W
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W
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

It’s too expensive to buy clones. will Smith is right. Why spend $16 on per clone when you can buy 1 and make as many as you want for far less. Plus that is how pest and disease are passed and that is why there is such a more problem now then 10 years ago.

MendoMan
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MendoMan
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Ya everyone makes their own clones now. Especially with the russet mite epidemic

Dude
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Dude
6 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Hi Kim, local farmers and long time reader. I’m staying black market and reducing my harvest this next season. Going to do a dep early and just call it at one pull. I’ll be in and out hopefully before the cops start looking for people to bust, with no visible plants from the sky. Growers are getting more thrifty, I’ll be doing my cloning in house this year, the price of clones has become so ridiculously high, even ten years ago you could buy clones all day for 5$ per, now people want 10-15$ for garbage quality ( looking at you wonderland), it doesn’t add up anymore. We all gotta cut costs and adapt to make this work. Hoping for one to two more years before the govt finds a way to shut me down for good.

mendo
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mendo
6 years ago
Reply to  Dude

Try Artifact Nursery. Ha ha ha ha ha……….

Perspective
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Perspective
6 years ago
Reply to  mendo

If you want to fail pesticide testing and get russet mights, then yes Artifact is the go to place. F@ck Artifact Nursery. Hopefully they read this.

Will Smith
Guest
Will Smith
6 years ago

I still believe the main point is, that all the legal states are over producing what they can consume and excess is being diverted to states where it is NOT legal. This fact is a pretty good reason and gives justification for future possible federal intervention.

Sleepy Alligator
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Sleepy Alligator
6 years ago
Reply to  Will Smith

“all the legal states are overproducing” Yeah right! The only regions “overproducing” , if at all, are Humboldt County and Mendocino County. Oregon may be “overproducing” by the Governor’s standards but I seriously doubt that by real world standards. Don’t believe the hype!

Terry L. Clark
Guest
6 years ago

The Horror, The Horror! An outbreak of capitalism! Quick, grab the government and kill it before it grows!

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Terry L. Clark

Thieves have always been the lowest basic unit of capitalism. I wonder were they always this whiny too.

Got Rosin?
Guest
6 years ago

We will CRUSH your over produced crops! Solvent-less Cannabis Extracts. Flavorgasm.org Got Rosin?