California learns the Marijuana industry is far from dope
It turns out the legal marijuana business in the Golden State is not golden at all.
For all of the promises that legalizing marijuana would create a boon for tax revenue and allow a previously underground industry to flourish as a legitimate business, California marijuana vendors have faced so many problems that they are now shifting to selling hemp, a legal form of marijuana that has much lower THC than conventional marijuana.
The main problem for California’s dope sellers is that there is simply not enough demand for recreational marijuana. This is, of course, a shocking development for marijuana vendors who were utterly convinced that everyone and their mother wants to smell like a skunk and inhibit their mental faculties.
Various marijuana buds for sale are displayed at The Green Cross cannabis dispensary in San Francisco, California. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The vendors, who entered the market about six years ago, believed the industry would only grow exponentially over time. But as it turns out, the market for legal marijuana users is finite, and the regulated market must compete for a number of morally flexible customers who are still perfectly content with buying from unsanctioned dealers.
Luckily for these entrepreneurs, there is a solution: hemp. Unlike regular marijuana, hemp, which comes from a different part of the marijuana plant, is legal on the federal level, largely unregulated, and is easily sold to the masses, including in many beauty products and skincare creams.
One marijuana vendor told the California outlet SFGate that the shift in product emphasis provides the ability to sell online and in 30 states, something that cannot be done with regular marijuana. And the best part is vendors can pass off hemp as practically the same thing as regular marijuana without paying the same vendor costs to the state, all the while ensuring that their old customers won’t go elsewhere.
California, much like other states that have legalized marijana, is learning that the industry is not so lucrative for the state as it seemed. Instead, all the legalized industry did was offer short-lived profit while making public spaces smell bad.
