Awash in weed
May. 31st, 2008 07:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleInteresting article in the Chronicle about measure B, which seeks to put tighter limits on pot cultivation in this county.
I hadn't realized that marijuana now represents 2/3 of the economy here. I was trying to explain to Bill that if pot is ever fully legalized, the price will collapse and the economy here will tank. Growing would immediately be taken over by big, efficient operations that local growers couldn't possibly compete with. Even without legalization the sheer number of growers coming up now will likely introduce stiff competition that would limit profits. This seems obvious, but nearly impossible to explain to someone lacking any background in economics.
The flip side, that the feds could roll in any day and confiscate growers' land, seems equally lost on the local population.
It's a bit of a gold rush at the moment, and the lesson I take from 1849 is that it's more lucrative to serve the miners than to be a miner yourself. Let other people assume the risk! It's created an excellent business environment, which explains our anomalously good sushi bar, among other things. I can only hope the money keeps rolling in, because stoned, mellow clients with lots of money and a bad case of the munchies can't hurt when it comes to catering!
It will be interesting to see how it all ends, because the current situation cannot be sustained forever.
I hadn't realized that marijuana now represents 2/3 of the economy here. I was trying to explain to Bill that if pot is ever fully legalized, the price will collapse and the economy here will tank. Growing would immediately be taken over by big, efficient operations that local growers couldn't possibly compete with. Even without legalization the sheer number of growers coming up now will likely introduce stiff competition that would limit profits. This seems obvious, but nearly impossible to explain to someone lacking any background in economics.
The flip side, that the feds could roll in any day and confiscate growers' land, seems equally lost on the local population.
It's a bit of a gold rush at the moment, and the lesson I take from 1849 is that it's more lucrative to serve the miners than to be a miner yourself. Let other people assume the risk! It's created an excellent business environment, which explains our anomalously good sushi bar, among other things. I can only hope the money keeps rolling in, because stoned, mellow clients with lots of money and a bad case of the munchies can't hurt when it comes to catering!
It will be interesting to see how it all ends, because the current situation cannot be sustained forever.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-31 05:51 pm (UTC)Not a bit. I expect it to sell at the price of the intoxicating weed that it actually is.
The only way small operations could possibly survive would be if putting in more effort resulted in a substantially better product.
That's exactly what I'd expect to happen, hence my comment about the tomatoes. Big agribusiness isn't very good about growing quality products. This leaves a lot of room for edge competition - obviously never at the same scale.
I think you were saying the little guys would go head to head against big agriculture. That's not the case at all. I expect a thriving farmers market out of this. It lets the little guys make money out of stuff they enjoy anyway.