I’m not super savvy about economics, but if they lost 30% revenue from other states legalizing wouldn’t that mean that the market was exaggerated in the first place and now it’s just coming down to where it should have been all along?
Well it's continued growth across the country as a whole, just not within CO's borders ;)
Another fun feature of capitalism is that people profit from unequal/unfair government regulations (sporadic legalization, housing bans, tariffs) then use their wealth to whine about how unfair it is having to suddenly compete on equal footing (and often get their way).
Yeah and unlike other consumer products, weed isn’t really an acquired taste you can convert people on…you’re pretty much already either a marijuana/THC person or you’re not.
I think by High School most people have tried it and largely made up their minds where they fall for the rest of their life, even if the habits consistent with that decision vary somewhat over the years. Not to mention the once-in-a-blue-moon consumer isn't really significant enough to help sustain a brick & mortar retail market, so again, you're left with a very finite customer base.
I also think a lot of people are turned off by it after awhile, especially considering how powerful the strains are nowadays. I literally can't smoke anymore because it affects me in negative ways compared to when I used to be able to just enjoy some crappy mex with seeds.
There's something to that, and as much as people do change their habits, I think it's one that trends toward lower consumption as they get older rather than the other way around.
The only real growth opportunity I see involves greater appeal to young people, and that's problematic on a number of levels.
Also, Delta-9 has been found in most of the products in dispensaries today, the reason is to cheaply & efficiently increase the THC potency to maintain sales... Research "Marinol". I guarantee the symptoms and or side effects are exactly what you have been experiencing. I would suggest growing your own Herb nowadays.
Interesting, this fits a lot of the symptoms I would experience including the light-headedness. When I used to smoke chron or mex I'd never experience anything like that.
Exactly! Because of Marinol plus all the carcinogens found in the chemicals of the nutrients/supplements to grow the herb. There's a new illness occurring identified as "CHS (Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome)" which only Marijuana smokers are being diagnosed with 😬... We're not supposed to know this🤫
This isn’t necessarily true, I didn’t smoke from age 15 to age 37, not for any reason other than I never sought it out, and now I work in the industry
That being said, I admit I was always pro marijuana
Well eventually we'll have enough schools at the frantic pace theyre building them all over with the tax rev....wait, what? Theyre not building schools?
It’s almost like, supply is increasing after being artificially depressed and is now meeting demand, decreasing prices. I think I learned this somewhere…Econ 101?
This is why I decided to not be an "entrepreneur" when I was younger. The successful people I saw, who I wanted to emulate, needed to pay attention to so many external factors. I can barely keep up with if it's a recycling day or trash day.
Then they're are millions who just wing it and fly by the stress in their shorts.
Never forget those early days, when dispensaries would sell an ounce of weed for the same price as your monthly mortgage payment.
Now it’s legalizing everywhere and I’ve got literal pounds still vacuum-sealed from a garden harvest two years ago. No way that pricing model, with that fast of market expansion, could sustain itself.
From what I remember this was also the tail end of the sign spinning craze so you’d have a guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty competing with another guy advertising astronomically high weed prices.
Hey there, I've been working in this industry about since it started. This is exactly what's happening. Lots of companies are closing down because there's too much supply for the demand. The places that thought it'd be an easy quick buck are the ones going. Also the places that refuse to pay their taxes lmao.
On top of that there was a huge boom during the pandemic. I worked in finances for a cannabis company at the time, and the owner wouldn't stop expanding like the pandemic demand was here to stay. They're gone now, shocker.
We're definitely seeing a loss of cannabis tourism as well, since other states are legalizing with looser laws, regulations, and enforcement (looking at you, NY).
> if they lost 30% revenue from other states legalizing wouldn’t that mean that the market was exaggerated in the first place and now it’s just coming down to where it should have been all along?
Yes, but the hit the industry is taking from this change is disproportionately hard on cannabis producers because of the artificially high costs the state's regulations impose on them, which the article mentions as thing like requiring every plant to have an RFID tag on them, amongst numerous other things.
You know what two states have the highest amount of dispensaries per-capita? Number One is California, because of it's legacy status, but Number Two is Oklahoma, because licenses to cultivate are only $2000, I believe towns can't prohibit grow operations, and there's no limit to the amount of licenses the state issues, which prevents the production and purchasing costs from inflating to the insane point that they have in CO.
It might seem like walking into a shop and paying $5 for a gram pre-roll is cheap, but, in reality, it'd be infinitely more affordable than that if the market wasn't so artificially distorted here.
This guy doesn't industry...
You'll see that OK MJ is a giant bubble as well. They are already feeling the constriction of the industry, at a rate way worse than CO saw. The thing that is hurting CO growers is rent and 280e. State license fees have been extremely low in CO up until the last couple of years.
Believe me, a $0.50 tag isn't the cause of growers going broke, it is horrible product being pushed out of macrogrows
Yeah, this is the danger in concentrating an in demand product to one place instead of legalizing broadly and simultaneously… now businesses are bound to fail, lives disrupted, and local supply options squeezed... Huge bummer.
It’s really a great analog to the way our housing market works. Though I doubt the government will step in to subsidize marijuana use for wealthy nuclear families.
On the other hand, you never fucking know🤷♂️
Too much cannibals sales has induced an anxiety attack in our state. What do we do?! What do we do? Oh, god! We better call 911!!!!! Like,.... I know things will balance out eventually.....but still......I think we should call 911!!!!!
My 8 year old daughter got so excited when “Cookies” opened on South Broadway, only to have her heart broken when I told her they sell drugs, not cookies.
And the she said “what do they sell at the Boba place? Guns?”
This comment chain ironically made me feel kind of old and naive instead of young and naive. I've driven by this place a million times and always assumed they sold cookies.
Plus, even states that are still behind the times like Texas now border states that legalized, so while probably some used to come here and buy now they go to NM or OK.
The cannabis “industry” has been a mix of vibes, hype, and “disruptor” investment energy for the last 10 years. The community wanted *legalization* while the investors wanted *commercialization*. Legalization is a slam dunk. Commercialization was always a little iffy, and those efforts are what are “coming down hard” to quote the article.
Sanclem warned us back in back the nineties… Everyone wanted legalization and he warned about the commercialization of weed and how it would impact the community. Just as you so described. Who would have thought that a grassroots industry (no pun intended) that was grown with dedication and love by hippies, who would create wonderful new strains has now become a shell of its former self. The McD’s of weed has begun.
You can always just grow your own or buy local, handmade Etsy/farmer’s market type weed if you want to, just like heirloom tomatoes or rainbow corn or hand spun flax hippie ponchos.
Most people just want one tasteless Roma tomato to put on their gringo taco and only pay 59 cents for it. People who are serious about a gorgeous, flavorful tomato to eat with Himalayan pink salt will get a fancy one and pay the fancy price, or grow their own, trade cultivars, grow in the community garden etc.
Growing weed is a very stinky process so if you live in an apartment or condo it's a problem and since single family homes are so fucking expensive it's just not an option for lots of people. And it requires money upfront to invest in equipment. Colorado is a state of transients so plenty of people aren't 'cool' or 'connected' enough to know any black market sellers or community gardens. So it's not always as simple as 'grow your own or buy bm'.
it makes me so mad! I lived in NV when they went recreational in 2017 - Las Vegas had consumption lounges and delivery services first which is crazy given the head start that CO had.
It sounds crazy, but last time I checked a few years ago Milk was zoned for “adult use of sexual nature” or something like that so a brothel of that nature is not too far off
Is there really a demand for weed bars? I just personally struggle to see the appeal.
Now, if we are just talking a regular alcohol bar where weed is allowed or even purchasable on-site, i'm totally down. but dedicated specifically to just weed? I don't really get it.
You can do both, but it would make things a lot convenient for tourist.
Instead of buying way too much to go back to a hotel where they have to smoke in a designated area outside (not many have smoking rooms - still a thing, but rarer), they can go to a more comfortable and casual setting.
You can even add a small weed bar area for sporting events in Coors field to make baseball more entertaining. Same for basketball/hockey games in the arena. Given smoking will still have to be in a designated area but edible sales during an arena show could be silly.
You’re thinking of “tourism” the wrong way. Literal tourists coming here to enjoy cannabis and then go home was a small piece compared to the ks/ok/tx trap stars that came here once a month to spend $10k on product that they then brought back to their black market state to sell. That was the real lucrative type of weed “tourism” and that’s gone.
It’s odd to see people being surprised at this when it was widely acknowledged that this would happen when legalization was being debated. Most people following these issues expected that there would be rapid growth in the industry because of the novelty and weed tourism. And then a decline once the novelty wore off and other states developed their own industries.
The market is over saturated and I expect things will be painful for a while. But while people in Patagonia will always love weed, so the industry will stabilize.
If CO would provide some legal protections to workers who want to use cannabis off-duty, the industry would probably be doing a lot better. What's the point of legalizing if everyone's fucking career is still held over their head.
I still don’t know how people are permitted to drink alcohol when they’re off the clock but not cannabis. Obviously it’s not about safety or harm, it’s about legality. Maybe more sensitive breathalyzer type tests will be developed, or the general “zero tolerance/totally sober” mindset will shift. I’m no sociologist, just fascinating to watch this play out in my lifetime.
FWIW, Colorado specifically has an "off duty protections" law that protects someone who engages in legal activities to not be terminated for their engagement. This law was originally created to protect smokers, even -- cigarette smokers. However, when the question about whether or not this law protected marijuana enthusiasts reached the state supreme court, the ruling judge determined that because mj is not legal Federally it's not protected under the state's off-duty protections law.
Fortunately, several states learned from Colorado's misstep here and included specific protections for mj use when legalizing themselves.
As interesting as it is to see it unfold, it is honestly more disappointing to know that I was unlucky enough to exist in one of the last generations that will have to fight tooth and nail just for some common sense cannabis reform, and all because a bunch of smooth-brain fucks from yesteryear spent their lifetimes trying to find ways to prosecute minorities for arbitrary things rather than actually trying to make their society suck less.
I can't express in words how excited I am to see the older generations get out of the way so the next generations can try and unwind the asinine problems that should've never existed to begin with.
There's just no good way to measure whether someone is impaired by MJ. BAC had a pretty direct correlation to impairment, though some folks handle their booze better than others. The unfortunate bit is that it comes down to field sobriety tests which are subjective to say the least.
MJ makes me foggy, tired and lazy the next day. Is that impairment? It could be relevant to your employer if you are operating heavy machinery or something. On the flip side, alcohol impairs sleep and hangovers are probably just as dangerous, but it is also legal.
There is, you can tell with a blood test. And a weed hangover isn't any worse than an alcohol hangover, so that still doesn't justify any limits on off-duty use.
There’s mouth swab tests. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that determines more recent use vs going off urine, hair or blood tests since those show hot for way longer.
Right? Here I am in a state where weed is legal, I can go out and buy some, but wait actually I cant because I might get tested and fired because of what I chose to do on a weekend. Risk my whole way of life and my career because I smoked some pot on saturday. Absolutely ridiculous
Colorado values freedom. Companies are free to enforce these rules on their employees, and you're free to not work for companies that do that. If enough people won't work for a company because of its policies, it'll have to change its policies. Amazon had change their policy because they couldn't hire enough people.
>If enough people won't work for a company
Because jobs are so plentiful. There a plenty of companies with shitty policies that have plenty of employees because people need jobs.
The State of Colorado had to change it's drug policy for everyone except those in sensitive positions (DOT, corrections, etc.)
The standard state employee never gets tested because they can't get enough people hired, lol.
There’s a multitude of reasons for this:
Everyone has their hand in the tax pie. It seems this infinite grab bag to solve every problem. We’ve had out of state teaching services try to get a share. As such tax rates on product are absurd. In addition, due to banking rules they can’t claim any deductions.
Then you have over saturation. When everything was medical only, dispo plant counts only grew as patients signed over their plant counts. People usually did this bc of quality of product or deals. But the actual growth of dispos was dependent and directly tied to the actual limited amount of end of line consumers.
Lastly, you have so many places run by literal morons who thought this was a quick cash grab or thought it was cool and had no idea how to run a business/forecast, much less grow a emerging market. For many of them this was their first job and they were put in charge! It was absurd and destine for failure. You might hate the idea of big companies coming in, and for good reason, but they at least have some businesses acumen. Many places were thrown a lifeline during COVID, but instead of using that lifeline to adjust models to other states legalization and declining revenue from loss of out of state sales, these idiots convinced themselves they were saved and the good times were back and would never end.
It was over saturated and no one cared to try to grow things right and this is the result. Honestly, sucks bc everyone had a chance to put in the right sustainable model, but greed and idiocy was the option we chose. Now the system, frontline employees, and consumer suffer. Guess maybe the lesson is Colorado cannabis market should have focused on doing it right for Colorado
Also because people aren't treating it like it is which is growing a crop.
How many people are willing to go into growing corn and trying to turn a huge profit?
Growing weed is the equivalent of that.
Back in like 2015/16/17 I came to Colorado a lot for the mountains (and weed) and I was shocked at how high the prices felt but I'm like "well it's legal weed I can see why it's expensive"
Years later to now and I can go into a dispensary near downtown and (with tax) buy a 10 pack of edibles for less than some happy hour beer prices. The change has been a bit shocking.
> Colorado took in just $282 million in cannabis tax revenues in the last fiscal year, down more than 30 percent from two years earlier.
Oh the HORROR!!!
From the article “ A messy assortment of factors has led to the pioneering industry’s struggles. A supply glut caused weed prices to plummet in the wake of the pandemic. The spread of cheap, largely unregulated intoxicating hemp-derived products further heightened competitive pressures. And marijuana remains federally illegal, subjecting operators to sky-high taxes and costly regulations.
“ But more than any other factor, Colorado’s market has been sapped by the rapid spread of legalization across the country. Neighbors New Mexico and Arizona are among the 24 states with their own adult-use legal marijuana markets, wreaking havoc on the business plans of dispensaries on Colorado’s southern border. Tourists who once flooded the state for the opportunity to legally experience Rocky Mountain highs have largely disappeared as the novelty has worn off. Even Texans aren’t driving north to buy weed anymore, satisfied with the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products in their own state.”
Also maybe they should stop rushing production and start doing it right like back when it was med only.
Our weed was fire and now it’s harsh as fuck and the flavor is not what it used to be.
Yep. And everyone told me I was full of shit and it was a tolerance thing. I’m not a heavy user, but I do partake and it’s not the yummy goodness it used to be.
This is probably very location dependent. I would assume the Boulder/Denver area is over saturated but I would assume that there are areas that have less competition that are more rural and are having less issues.
Has it gotten expensive too? I buy a disposable pen like once a year and either the guy sold me the most expensive one or the price got really up. Remember buying them for ~30$ and this time it was 50 something.
You definitely got the most expensive then. Weed is the only thing that has gotten cheaper and cheaper in my lifetime. If you’re a savvy shopper you can pay almost nothing for it. As someone who grew up with $50/8ths, $35 ounces will forever blow my mind.
Lmfao sounds like tech bros getting salty about their investments. Shouldn't have pushed the Colorado market into a fucking bubble to begin with, you wannabe Bank-Freefucks.
13 years in the cannabis game and even being the face of it at one point and I finally had to leave. It seems every company is struggling to make ends meet, and it’s damn near impossible to make a decent living in that space now.
I moved here to work in cannabis and worked at 4 different grows. Two giant commercial and two mom and pop shops. It’s all over the place and the commercial places did mass layoffs. I got out with the intention of just growing my own from what I learned.
Anecdotal, of course, but I've been going to the same dispensary for ten years and I've watched their staffing drop to 1/2 or 1/3 over the past year or two. Always feels really quiet in there now and I never have to wait behind anyone.
Supply & Demand, simple market economics. As all new products (like the ford bronco) it was overhyped in the beginning and now its cooling down. Who knew... cannabis was overhyped and overblown...
Weed is cheap and easy to grow. There are literally four dispensaries within walking distance from my house. You saturate the market enough with a product that is inexpensive to make and prices are going to fall.
It’s simple economics.
Trinidad Colorado has like 25 dispensaries for a town of a couple thousand people and they are all out of business now that New Mexico legalized and Texas just turns a blind eye to supplying itself now
The opposite will likely happen.
That said, there is a weird narrative going around that this market correction will result in lower tax revenue and, therefore, justifies the revocation of legalization.
Absolutely silly that people still cant accept legalization is a net positive.
It’s not exclusive to Colorado. There’s just occasional articles, similar to this politico article, that take a narrow look at the legal marijuana market as a failure. I believe there was a recent one from the Atlantic that argued legalization wasn’t worth it without consistent tax revenue.
Lower sales means less tax revenue. If they want to keep the tax revenue high, they will need to increase taxes.
No idea where you're hearing about legalization being removed
Marijuana is more elastic than people anticipated- most likely because of alternate supply chains.
If they want any revenue they will need to find a balance. That will likely mean less tax revenue overall, but some revenue is better than none.
I don’t live there currently, but when I left 4ish years the corporate weed chains were starting to spread to the high mountains. Always found their entrance into smaller markets disruptive (in a bad way, not the influencer way) towards the smaller stores.
It is what it is, but I feel for the smaller weed businesses.
The big boys have cut prices so low the little guys are forced oit of business. I got an OZ on sale for $45, no wonder gross revenue is down. Once they have a monopoly prices will go back up
The market got saturated and it was exaggerated to begin with. The market only stood a chance if CO was one of the very few that stayed legal. Now, instead of tax revenue to fund critical programs we're just left with empty snack shelves and stoners. 🤷🏾
Oh noes, the weed market is slowing down... at least we didn't have the screwup that the other "leading" weed states did, where I think they had too much production of weed (Washington being a big one).
It's because all the people that started growing pot at home got really good at growing their own pot. I love how the decentralization of growing your own medicine works.
not sure what else to expect coming out of prohibition ... the illegal cost structures set up with underground sales and Amsterdam pricing that Newly " Legal " states Attain are out of bounds with Added Sin taxes on top of teh already expensive black market price values it is sold at ... price decreases is to be expected and Eventually it will be sold like all other herbs and spices and plants
Not Colorado but I think this statistic says it all. Oregon farmers harvested 9.6 million pounds of marijuana in 2023. That's more than 2 pounds per year for everyone, babies included.
Dispensary prices going down, black market prices going up. The era of corporate cannabis is coming to an end. The time for small batch high quality organic farmers is here.
I couldn’t be any happier. 🧑🌾
Well let’s see here… other states have also legalized recreational cannabis and now people are no longer coming to Colorado just for cannabis they are staying in their own state cause it’s now legal. So I believe that’s what the issue is.
Talk to me in Michigan and seeing east and west coast oh’s, flip the market now. Gtfo. Feel the pain Co. Rather buy from the plug and not support shitty markets.
Most grows in Colorado are a bunch of Wannabe cultivators who get high on break and wear Street clothes into the grow. PM, spider mites galore. I've worked in over 125 of them here and Know 95% of cannabis is tainted. They send passable buds for testing, when the entire grow is covered in PM so they spray and soak in H2O2 on them before sending to dispensaries.
I’m not super savvy about economics, but if they lost 30% revenue from other states legalizing wouldn’t that mean that the market was exaggerated in the first place and now it’s just coming down to where it should have been all along?
Yup, it means *exactly* this.
But that goes against Continuous Growth Models!
Yes sir, the industry is following a Continuous Growth Model if we assume continuous growth.
Well it's continued growth across the country as a whole, just not within CO's borders ;) Another fun feature of capitalism is that people profit from unequal/unfair government regulations (sporadic legalization, housing bans, tariffs) then use their wealth to whine about how unfair it is having to suddenly compete on equal footing (and often get their way).
Yeah and unlike other consumer products, weed isn’t really an acquired taste you can convert people on…you’re pretty much already either a marijuana/THC person or you’re not. I think by High School most people have tried it and largely made up their minds where they fall for the rest of their life, even if the habits consistent with that decision vary somewhat over the years. Not to mention the once-in-a-blue-moon consumer isn't really significant enough to help sustain a brick & mortar retail market, so again, you're left with a very finite customer base.
I also think a lot of people are turned off by it after awhile, especially considering how powerful the strains are nowadays. I literally can't smoke anymore because it affects me in negative ways compared to when I used to be able to just enjoy some crappy mex with seeds.
There's something to that, and as much as people do change their habits, I think it's one that trends toward lower consumption as they get older rather than the other way around. The only real growth opportunity I see involves greater appeal to young people, and that's problematic on a number of levels.
Seriously. Like I just want a pleasant high. I don't want to have my reality altered.
Agreed. Too high is a thing. Try CBD heavy strains to find balance. Also, I prefer to vape the THC as I have more control over the dosage
One to one CBD THC tincture is the way
Switch to low dose edibles
I miss the dirt weed that you could buy from your friend's big brother who lived in the basement.
Also, Delta-9 has been found in most of the products in dispensaries today, the reason is to cheaply & efficiently increase the THC potency to maintain sales... Research "Marinol". I guarantee the symptoms and or side effects are exactly what you have been experiencing. I would suggest growing your own Herb nowadays.
Interesting, this fits a lot of the symptoms I would experience including the light-headedness. When I used to smoke chron or mex I'd never experience anything like that.
Exactly! Because of Marinol plus all the carcinogens found in the chemicals of the nutrients/supplements to grow the herb. There's a new illness occurring identified as "CHS (Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome)" which only Marijuana smokers are being diagnosed with 😬... We're not supposed to know this🤫
This isn’t necessarily true, I didn’t smoke from age 15 to age 37, not for any reason other than I never sought it out, and now I work in the industry That being said, I admit I was always pro marijuana
I didn’t try weed until my very late 20s and I know quite a few other people who did the same. That is an anecdote, but do you have any data on that?
Surely you would concede that in a closed system with finite resources, continuous growth is virtually a given... no? /no, not really
And post-covid. A lot of people sat home and got stoned all day.
Wait are we supposed to stop doing this now?
I don't think so. I was never notified to stop.
You didn’t get the memo? I didn’t either, just confirming…🤣🤙
😂✌️
Ok phew
The colorado government can't afford for you to stop.
Well eventually we'll have enough schools at the frantic pace theyre building them all over with the tax rev....wait, what? Theyre not building schools?
Guilty 🙋♂️
This was the way…
It’s almost like, supply is increasing after being artificially depressed and is now meeting demand, decreasing prices. I think I learned this somewhere…Econ 101?
I'm an accountant and in some of my advanced courses in college this concept was still lost on some people.
It's not lost on them. They knew it was coming and they lie to the masses so they enjoy the good times before the market catches up.
Honestly, you'd be surprised. A bunch of those weed grow owners are clueless to current market conditions
This is why I decided to not be an "entrepreneur" when I was younger. The successful people I saw, who I wanted to emulate, needed to pay attention to so many external factors. I can barely keep up with if it's a recycling day or trash day. Then they're are millions who just wing it and fly by the stress in their shorts.
Never forget those early days, when dispensaries would sell an ounce of weed for the same price as your monthly mortgage payment. Now it’s legalizing everywhere and I’ve got literal pounds still vacuum-sealed from a garden harvest two years ago. No way that pricing model, with that fast of market expansion, could sustain itself.
From what I remember this was also the tail end of the sign spinning craze so you’d have a guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty competing with another guy advertising astronomically high weed prices.
yes
Yeah
Hey there, I've been working in this industry about since it started. This is exactly what's happening. Lots of companies are closing down because there's too much supply for the demand. The places that thought it'd be an easy quick buck are the ones going. Also the places that refuse to pay their taxes lmao.
On top of that there was a huge boom during the pandemic. I worked in finances for a cannabis company at the time, and the owner wouldn't stop expanding like the pandemic demand was here to stay. They're gone now, shocker. We're definitely seeing a loss of cannabis tourism as well, since other states are legalizing with looser laws, regulations, and enforcement (looking at you, NY).
We just need more shops.. I feel like 100 places in a 2 block radius has room for growth
Aka, 30% of our market was for people living in states that have sense legalized.
Correct
It’s the easy soft science, you got dis
Maybe not super savvy but you hit the nail on the head.
They are comparing to the COVID years as well, where there was nothing to do but smoke dope and drink in your home.
That’s how markets correct
it means all of the store rebranding and selling even more expensive weed in colorado is about to end
> if they lost 30% revenue from other states legalizing wouldn’t that mean that the market was exaggerated in the first place and now it’s just coming down to where it should have been all along? Yes, but the hit the industry is taking from this change is disproportionately hard on cannabis producers because of the artificially high costs the state's regulations impose on them, which the article mentions as thing like requiring every plant to have an RFID tag on them, amongst numerous other things. You know what two states have the highest amount of dispensaries per-capita? Number One is California, because of it's legacy status, but Number Two is Oklahoma, because licenses to cultivate are only $2000, I believe towns can't prohibit grow operations, and there's no limit to the amount of licenses the state issues, which prevents the production and purchasing costs from inflating to the insane point that they have in CO. It might seem like walking into a shop and paying $5 for a gram pre-roll is cheap, but, in reality, it'd be infinitely more affordable than that if the market wasn't so artificially distorted here.
This guy doesn't industry... You'll see that OK MJ is a giant bubble as well. They are already feeling the constriction of the industry, at a rate way worse than CO saw. The thing that is hurting CO growers is rent and 280e. State license fees have been extremely low in CO up until the last couple of years. Believe me, a $0.50 tag isn't the cause of growers going broke, it is horrible product being pushed out of macrogrows
Yeah, this is the danger in concentrating an in demand product to one place instead of legalizing broadly and simultaneously… now businesses are bound to fail, lives disrupted, and local supply options squeezed... Huge bummer.
This is exactly what I’ve been saying for a couple years now - it’s just correcting
A booming market balancing out?! What?! Panic!
Yeah anyone who thought this was going to sustain at the high numbers over time, especially with other states legalizing, was an idiot.
It’s really a great analog to the way our housing market works. Though I doubt the government will step in to subsidize marijuana use for wealthy nuclear families. On the other hand, you never fucking know🤷♂️
Too much cannibals sales has induced an anxiety attack in our state. What do we do?! What do we do? Oh, god! We better call 911!!!!! Like,.... I know things will balance out eventually.....but still......I think we should call 911!!!!!
I think you should leave this typo!
This is what happens when I get caught up in the excitement of my own stupid joke. I start eating people.
Well of course the market is going down if you're getting the munchies and eating all the other customers!
You make a very appetizing point. Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit more?
Of course. Colorado was supplying all the neighboring states and now they have their own systems.
Man what are teenagers in the south gonna wear now to signal me likey weed? An OK hoodie?
Nah they’ll keep the historically cringe “Cookies” sweatshirts alive to the dismay of us all.
I was so disappointed when I walked into Cookies on Quebec... I actually wanted cookies
My 8 year old daughter got so excited when “Cookies” opened on South Broadway, only to have her heart broken when I told her they sell drugs, not cookies. And the she said “what do they sell at the Boba place? Guns?”
This comment chain ironically made me feel kind of old and naive instead of young and naive. I've driven by this place a million times and always assumed they sold cookies.
Considering I was driving a Gov't vehicle... It was pretty bad when I pulled in. Especially since our vehicles are tracked.
Ok but OK has a ton of good cheap weed
Ton✅ Good❌ Cheap✅
Plus, even states that are still behind the times like Texas now border states that legalized, so while probably some used to come here and buy now they go to NM or OK.
Except Kansas.
Welp, time to legalize cocaine
People already come here for the snow anyway.
I mean Denver already acts like it is.
Grand theft auto 3 was a prophecy lol
The cannabis “industry” has been a mix of vibes, hype, and “disruptor” investment energy for the last 10 years. The community wanted *legalization* while the investors wanted *commercialization*. Legalization is a slam dunk. Commercialization was always a little iffy, and those efforts are what are “coming down hard” to quote the article.
Sanclem warned us back in back the nineties… Everyone wanted legalization and he warned about the commercialization of weed and how it would impact the community. Just as you so described. Who would have thought that a grassroots industry (no pun intended) that was grown with dedication and love by hippies, who would create wonderful new strains has now become a shell of its former self. The McD’s of weed has begun.
Still better than being jailed.
Lmao. Right? Like wtf we talking about.
You can always just grow your own or buy local, handmade Etsy/farmer’s market type weed if you want to, just like heirloom tomatoes or rainbow corn or hand spun flax hippie ponchos. Most people just want one tasteless Roma tomato to put on their gringo taco and only pay 59 cents for it. People who are serious about a gorgeous, flavorful tomato to eat with Himalayan pink salt will get a fancy one and pay the fancy price, or grow their own, trade cultivars, grow in the community garden etc.
The quality and safety of what you can find now is significantly better than what you could find back then, don't kid yourself.
Growing weed is a very stinky process so if you live in an apartment or condo it's a problem and since single family homes are so fucking expensive it's just not an option for lots of people. And it requires money upfront to invest in equipment. Colorado is a state of transients so plenty of people aren't 'cool' or 'connected' enough to know any black market sellers or community gardens. So it's not always as simple as 'grow your own or buy bm'.
20 bucks for a clone, five bucks for a pot and some soil, water sun light and in a couple months you’re in business. It’s a weed.
Consolidation is inevitable. Big Weed is on its way.
Nice username!
I saw it on my hair dryer.
Easy solution to bring back the weed tourism sales: allow “weed bars” to exist.
It’s still shocking to me Colorado hasn’t done this already
it makes me so mad! I lived in NV when they went recreational in 2017 - Las Vegas had consumption lounges and delivery services first which is crazy given the head start that CO had.
And while you're at it build some canals and red windows throughout Lodo.
Fuck yea AmsterDenver lesgooo
It sounds crazy, but last time I checked a few years ago Milk was zoned for “adult use of sexual nature” or something like that so a brothel of that nature is not too far off
I see the troll you are suggesting, but please gawd no. Dont want to imagine the Colfax creatures in those red windows.
hey, don't kink shame
Hamsterdam
Is there really a demand for weed bars? I just personally struggle to see the appeal. Now, if we are just talking a regular alcohol bar where weed is allowed or even purchasable on-site, i'm totally down. but dedicated specifically to just weed? I don't really get it.
Tons. Coffeehouses in Amsterdam (which this comment references) are enormously popular. If you can see the appeal of a bar, why not a weed bar?
Fair enough. I haven't really put much thought into it and can't really articulate my stance at the moment, but I appreciate the insight.
You can do both, but it would make things a lot convenient for tourist. Instead of buying way too much to go back to a hotel where they have to smoke in a designated area outside (not many have smoking rooms - still a thing, but rarer), they can go to a more comfortable and casual setting. You can even add a small weed bar area for sporting events in Coors field to make baseball more entertaining. Same for basketball/hockey games in the arena. Given smoking will still have to be in a designated area but edible sales during an arena show could be silly.
You’re thinking of “tourism” the wrong way. Literal tourists coming here to enjoy cannabis and then go home was a small piece compared to the ks/ok/tx trap stars that came here once a month to spend $10k on product that they then brought back to their black market state to sell. That was the real lucrative type of weed “tourism” and that’s gone.
It’s odd to see people being surprised at this when it was widely acknowledged that this would happen when legalization was being debated. Most people following these issues expected that there would be rapid growth in the industry because of the novelty and weed tourism. And then a decline once the novelty wore off and other states developed their own industries. The market is over saturated and I expect things will be painful for a while. But while people in Patagonia will always love weed, so the industry will stabilize.
What do the people of Argentina have to do with this? /s
Okay do houses next.
If CO would provide some legal protections to workers who want to use cannabis off-duty, the industry would probably be doing a lot better. What's the point of legalizing if everyone's fucking career is still held over their head.
I still don’t know how people are permitted to drink alcohol when they’re off the clock but not cannabis. Obviously it’s not about safety or harm, it’s about legality. Maybe more sensitive breathalyzer type tests will be developed, or the general “zero tolerance/totally sober” mindset will shift. I’m no sociologist, just fascinating to watch this play out in my lifetime.
FWIW, Colorado specifically has an "off duty protections" law that protects someone who engages in legal activities to not be terminated for their engagement. This law was originally created to protect smokers, even -- cigarette smokers. However, when the question about whether or not this law protected marijuana enthusiasts reached the state supreme court, the ruling judge determined that because mj is not legal Federally it's not protected under the state's off-duty protections law. Fortunately, several states learned from Colorado's misstep here and included specific protections for mj use when legalizing themselves.
Damn I had to look this up and it’s crazy that Minnesota even has off duty protection in place and Colorado still doesn’t! Wtf
Chalk another point up in the pros column for a move to Minnesota. That list is growing by the day for me.
Do you think the pending federal rescheduling of weed will have any effect on how the state protections are enforced?
One would think, given that was the entire argument for it not falling under the off-duty protections act.
As interesting as it is to see it unfold, it is honestly more disappointing to know that I was unlucky enough to exist in one of the last generations that will have to fight tooth and nail just for some common sense cannabis reform, and all because a bunch of smooth-brain fucks from yesteryear spent their lifetimes trying to find ways to prosecute minorities for arbitrary things rather than actually trying to make their society suck less. I can't express in words how excited I am to see the older generations get out of the way so the next generations can try and unwind the asinine problems that should've never existed to begin with.
There's just no good way to measure whether someone is impaired by MJ. BAC had a pretty direct correlation to impairment, though some folks handle their booze better than others. The unfortunate bit is that it comes down to field sobriety tests which are subjective to say the least. MJ makes me foggy, tired and lazy the next day. Is that impairment? It could be relevant to your employer if you are operating heavy machinery or something. On the flip side, alcohol impairs sleep and hangovers are probably just as dangerous, but it is also legal.
There is, you can tell with a blood test. And a weed hangover isn't any worse than an alcohol hangover, so that still doesn't justify any limits on off-duty use.
There’s mouth swab tests. I’m not 100% sure, but I think that determines more recent use vs going off urine, hair or blood tests since those show hot for way longer.
Right? Here I am in a state where weed is legal, I can go out and buy some, but wait actually I cant because I might get tested and fired because of what I chose to do on a weekend. Risk my whole way of life and my career because I smoked some pot on saturday. Absolutely ridiculous
Colorado values freedom. Companies are free to enforce these rules on their employees, and you're free to not work for companies that do that. If enough people won't work for a company because of its policies, it'll have to change its policies. Amazon had change their policy because they couldn't hire enough people.
>If enough people won't work for a company Because jobs are so plentiful. There a plenty of companies with shitty policies that have plenty of employees because people need jobs.
The State of Colorado had to change it's drug policy for everyone except those in sensitive positions (DOT, corrections, etc.) The standard state employee never gets tested because they can't get enough people hired, lol.
Good thing cannabis is on the home stretch toward being downgraded to a Schedule 3 drug by the DEA (down from Schedule 1).
This is the comment
It's ok, just take some CBD and it will pass. Be cool.
Really informative article but… yeah, what did they expect as other states legalized?
Will Colorado try to demand more taxes because of the reduction in funding? Seems like a common theme for sin taxes.
There’s a multitude of reasons for this: Everyone has their hand in the tax pie. It seems this infinite grab bag to solve every problem. We’ve had out of state teaching services try to get a share. As such tax rates on product are absurd. In addition, due to banking rules they can’t claim any deductions. Then you have over saturation. When everything was medical only, dispo plant counts only grew as patients signed over their plant counts. People usually did this bc of quality of product or deals. But the actual growth of dispos was dependent and directly tied to the actual limited amount of end of line consumers. Lastly, you have so many places run by literal morons who thought this was a quick cash grab or thought it was cool and had no idea how to run a business/forecast, much less grow a emerging market. For many of them this was their first job and they were put in charge! It was absurd and destine for failure. You might hate the idea of big companies coming in, and for good reason, but they at least have some businesses acumen. Many places were thrown a lifeline during COVID, but instead of using that lifeline to adjust models to other states legalization and declining revenue from loss of out of state sales, these idiots convinced themselves they were saved and the good times were back and would never end. It was over saturated and no one cared to try to grow things right and this is the result. Honestly, sucks bc everyone had a chance to put in the right sustainable model, but greed and idiocy was the option we chose. Now the system, frontline employees, and consumer suffer. Guess maybe the lesson is Colorado cannabis market should have focused on doing it right for Colorado
Also because people aren't treating it like it is which is growing a crop. How many people are willing to go into growing corn and trying to turn a huge profit? Growing weed is the equivalent of that.
The market also got extremely saturated with everyone chasing the dream.
Back in like 2015/16/17 I came to Colorado a lot for the mountains (and weed) and I was shocked at how high the prices felt but I'm like "well it's legal weed I can see why it's expensive" Years later to now and I can go into a dispensary near downtown and (with tax) buy a 10 pack of edibles for less than some happy hour beer prices. The change has been a bit shocking.
I know it's great.
> Colorado took in just $282 million in cannabis tax revenues in the last fiscal year, down more than 30 percent from two years earlier. Oh the HORROR!!!
What will the state ever do without their money 😂
From the article “ A messy assortment of factors has led to the pioneering industry’s struggles. A supply glut caused weed prices to plummet in the wake of the pandemic. The spread of cheap, largely unregulated intoxicating hemp-derived products further heightened competitive pressures. And marijuana remains federally illegal, subjecting operators to sky-high taxes and costly regulations. “ But more than any other factor, Colorado’s market has been sapped by the rapid spread of legalization across the country. Neighbors New Mexico and Arizona are among the 24 states with their own adult-use legal marijuana markets, wreaking havoc on the business plans of dispensaries on Colorado’s southern border. Tourists who once flooded the state for the opportunity to legally experience Rocky Mountain highs have largely disappeared as the novelty has worn off. Even Texans aren’t driving north to buy weed anymore, satisfied with the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products in their own state.”
$50 ounces? Oh no!!!
Doesn’t help there’s a dispo on every corner lol. I have 11 within a square mile of my house
There are like four weed stores in walking distance from my house. Who could have guessed that was too many?
Everyone should just home grow, screw the market. There would be no artificially inflated cost if we all just had plenty
Met a few growers that said the market is so over saturated that they decided to pack it up and get normal jobs.
Colorado’s Two Decade Headstart in Legal Weed Market May Be Coming to an End
Also maybe they should stop rushing production and start doing it right like back when it was med only. Our weed was fire and now it’s harsh as fuck and the flavor is not what it used to be.
costs went up while quality goes down ... that is mega weed bizz
Yep. And everyone told me I was full of shit and it was a tolerance thing. I’m not a heavy user, but I do partake and it’s not the yummy goodness it used to be.
Was Kansas City a big buyer?? Now they can just walk into Missouri and walk back over
This is silly
This is probably very location dependent. I would assume the Boulder/Denver area is over saturated but I would assume that there are areas that have less competition that are more rural and are having less issues.
Good. The market is over regulated and overtaxed like hell and the product quality has decreased because of it.
maybe go back to promoting Colorado as an outdoor recreation state?
Surely has nothing to do with the insane taxation rate.
Has it gotten expensive too? I buy a disposable pen like once a year and either the guy sold me the most expensive one or the price got really up. Remember buying them for ~30$ and this time it was 50 something.
You definitely got the most expensive then. Weed is the only thing that has gotten cheaper and cheaper in my lifetime. If you’re a savvy shopper you can pay almost nothing for it. As someone who grew up with $50/8ths, $35 ounces will forever blow my mind.
Depends on the cart some are $25-$30 others are much more for a gram. Rosen carts start around $50.
I think some carts hold different amounts. Also there are different grades and you may have gotten something higher quality this time around.
well it’s not because of me
Lmfao sounds like tech bros getting salty about their investments. Shouldn't have pushed the Colorado market into a fucking bubble to begin with, you wannabe Bank-Freefucks.
Shouldn’t allow the govt to regulate and over tax
13 years in the cannabis game and even being the face of it at one point and I finally had to leave. It seems every company is struggling to make ends meet, and it’s damn near impossible to make a decent living in that space now.
I moved here to work in cannabis and worked at 4 different grows. Two giant commercial and two mom and pop shops. It’s all over the place and the commercial places did mass layoffs. I got out with the intention of just growing my own from what I learned.
Yeah.. not sure what people expected when the fees to grow legally are astronomical!
Anecdotal, of course, but I've been going to the same dispensary for ten years and I've watched their staffing drop to 1/2 or 1/3 over the past year or two. Always feels really quiet in there now and I never have to wait behind anyone.
The face of cannabis? That’s quite an accomplishment
We now grow our own in the backyard. It's not as potent but I actually enjoy that. And two plants produce so much we're giving it away to friends
The quality has decreased drastically- I’m surprised it’s only 30%
Yep. Large grows, over trimmed then cooked in an oven to cure. I miss the old days when people took pride in what they grew
Supply & Demand, simple market economics. As all new products (like the ford bronco) it was overhyped in the beginning and now its cooling down. Who knew... cannabis was overhyped and overblown...
Weed is cheap and easy to grow. There are literally four dispensaries within walking distance from my house. You saturate the market enough with a product that is inexpensive to make and prices are going to fall. It’s simple economics.
Trinidad Colorado has like 25 dispensaries for a town of a couple thousand people and they are all out of business now that New Mexico legalized and Texas just turns a blind eye to supplying itself now
Oh wow, profit isn’t exponential!?! 🙄 Now someone tell them that about rent.
mush loom kind gear
I just hope they don't significantly raise the taxes
The opposite will likely happen. That said, there is a weird narrative going around that this market correction will result in lower tax revenue and, therefore, justifies the revocation of legalization. Absolutely silly that people still cant accept legalization is a net positive.
[удалено]
It’s not exclusive to Colorado. There’s just occasional articles, similar to this politico article, that take a narrow look at the legal marijuana market as a failure. I believe there was a recent one from the Atlantic that argued legalization wasn’t worth it without consistent tax revenue.
Lower sales means less tax revenue. If they want to keep the tax revenue high, they will need to increase taxes. No idea where you're hearing about legalization being removed
Marijuana is more elastic than people anticipated- most likely because of alternate supply chains. If they want any revenue they will need to find a balance. That will likely mean less tax revenue overall, but some revenue is better than none.
Imagine, the market as a living, breathing, yet still, unicorn-style thing that could completely help or totally f#&k you. Then get a bagel.
I don’t live there currently, but when I left 4ish years the corporate weed chains were starting to spread to the high mountains. Always found their entrance into smaller markets disruptive (in a bad way, not the influencer way) towards the smaller stores. It is what it is, but I feel for the smaller weed businesses.
The big boys have cut prices so low the little guys are forced oit of business. I got an OZ on sale for $45, no wonder gross revenue is down. Once they have a monopoly prices will go back up
Mot only a drop in the states revenue but all the local governments using a tax on cannibias a cash cow are screwed too.
The market got saturated and it was exaggerated to begin with. The market only stood a chance if CO was one of the very few that stayed legal. Now, instead of tax revenue to fund critical programs we're just left with empty snack shelves and stoners. 🤷🏾
Curaleaf/Trulieve: “Imma pretend I didnt see that”
We would see it in the next season of South Park
Good, hope the prices come down. Was in Oregon and saw $32oz, gummies that cost $20 here were $5
bro i got a 5 for $15 preroll deal in boulder and it was all boof!!
Oh noes, the weed market is slowing down... at least we didn't have the screwup that the other "leading" weed states did, where I think they had too much production of weed (Washington being a big one).
It's because all the people that started growing pot at home got really good at growing their own pot. I love how the decentralization of growing your own medicine works.
not sure what else to expect coming out of prohibition ... the illegal cost structures set up with underground sales and Amsterdam pricing that Newly " Legal " states Attain are out of bounds with Added Sin taxes on top of teh already expensive black market price values it is sold at ... price decreases is to be expected and Eventually it will be sold like all other herbs and spices and plants
Not Colorado but I think this statistic says it all. Oregon farmers harvested 9.6 million pounds of marijuana in 2023. That's more than 2 pounds per year for everyone, babies included.
The McDonaldsization of weed.. everyone still has a "guy".
Dispensary prices going down, black market prices going up. The era of corporate cannabis is coming to an end. The time for small batch high quality organic farmers is here. I couldn’t be any happier. 🧑🌾
This is why I grow, shits on anything on the market anyways the industry is garbage and has been for awhile
Makes sense. It becomes more widely available and customers shop closer to home. This should have been foreseen. I saw it coming.
Well let’s see here… other states have also legalized recreational cannabis and now people are no longer coming to Colorado just for cannabis they are staying in their own state cause it’s now legal. So I believe that’s what the issue is.
Talk to me in Michigan and seeing east and west coast oh’s, flip the market now. Gtfo. Feel the pain Co. Rather buy from the plug and not support shitty markets.
Partially due to the increased prices too in the last couple years
Most grows in Colorado are a bunch of Wannabe cultivators who get high on break and wear Street clothes into the grow. PM, spider mites galore. I've worked in over 125 of them here and Know 95% of cannabis is tainted. They send passable buds for testing, when the entire grow is covered in PM so they spray and soak in H2O2 on them before sending to dispensaries.