>

i've been smoking weed for decades and the times i've worried about being stabbed or ripped off were pretty rare, i think i can count them on one hand. yeah, it's safer going to a pot dispensary and i did when i lived in cali, but it's not like i was always trying to score weed from sketchy people i didn't know or weren't introduced to.
It's early days and the black market is obviously entrenched as far as weed sales go. The legal market is the newcomer here.  Get the retail infrastructure set up, get sane support from financial institutions and keep pushing for national legalization. The industry will be OK. >

And the big thing: Make it affordable.
Seems they forgot about that part. >

$50 for an eighth of good weed is just outrageous. >

That's what we paid in the black market 20 years ago. And nowadays, it's about $20 an eighth. I can get an ounce for about $100 of 30%+. >

Prices will come down - they have in Canada - you can get good quality weed for 100 - 110 an ounce, in Canadian dollars (70 to 80 USD) at retail / legal stores. >

I would put the emphasis on ‘good’ quality. $100 ounces are usually skywalker OG or something similar. It’s good… but it’s not fantastic like the $15ish a gram craft cannabis. >

Skywalker is good quality! It’s not the AAA rapper weed but it gets the job done! >

Rapper weed is never good though smh.  It’s all marketing/branding and almost all the rapper weed is grown by the same 1-2 multi state operators who don’t care about quality. >

I’m talking about the really nice stuff that goes for 40-60 an eighth in Grey market (I’m in nyc). Jungle boys, connected co, I think something apothecary has them too. Honestly, it’s a step up and not “never good”. The smoke is better, high is cleaner, taste is better and it just looks and smells better too. >

Translation: Legal pot is overpriced. >

100%.  I would gladly buy from a dispensary and pay the taxes, but the sticker prices alone are minimum 50% higher than what I pay my guy (and that's before the aforementioned tax gets applied).  
It's a pretty clear-cut decision for most people.  Make it cheaper and easier to buy legally than illegally and the black market will shrivel and die. >

It's so stupid. Many cities out west impose a tax of $25 per square foot of space utilized for cultivation and a tax of 18% of gross proceeds. And that's just the cultivation side
They have completely lost sight of the point of the law. This isn't supposed to be a cash-cow, it's to eliminate a ridiculous law that wastes oceans of money >

It kinda is supposed to be a cash cow (at least that’s what entices lawmakers not some kind of moral standard) and it can be that even with reasonable pricing. >

Then stop calling it 'legalization' and call it what it is - Corruption >

You're coming at it from the wrong perspective. The idea of legalizing weed, taxing it, and states making bank off everyone and their brother buying legal weed was 100% a part of the public discourse pitching for legalization. In reality that isn't what the market wants, which is mainly access to weed without potential for blowback and little to no government interference or taxation resulting in increased prices. 
There's nothing corrupt about taxing a luxury good, in the same way that taxing cable TV packages, sports betting winnings, or McDonald's isn't corruption. We're just at the point as a society where we're having to come to terms with the fact that legalization proponents were either throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping any argument would stick, or massively misunderstood the industry they were arguing for. Lawmakers are just going to have to deal with it and change things accordingly if they have an interest in stamping out the black market, and making the public more aware of the issue is part of that. And having to do that, scale back taxes and potentially regulations resulting in increased prices is a pretty rare event in emerging markets in then US. Traditionally, new industries are under regulated until problems emerge, such as the internet.
It turns out that the guy saying "I'll pay higher prices if it means legal weed" really was only interested in legal weed at roughly the same price he was already paying, and if he doesn't get that, he'll gladly take not getting hassled by cops as he buys from the same dealer he had before. >

Hi, I'm the guy that pays higher prices for legal weed here.
Supply and demand is a constant. Weed is easy to grow yourself, the real issue is the market wants a monopoly on something that anyone can grow right out of the fucking ground.
It's unfair to frame the black market as the consumer's fault when we were criminalized for years and then charged highway robbery prices for the privilege to not get imprisoned for smoking something the state now makes billions on.
Maybe the issue is that progress in this country only happens if you pinky swear to enrich politicians while you're at it. >


Maybe the issue is that progress in this country only happens if you pinky swear to enrich politicians while you're at it.

I mean, tax revenue is useful for funding things like anti-poverty programs,  education,  etc so I'll let you be the guy making this argument when people are begging for European style governance in the US.

It's unfair to frame the black market as the consumer's fault when we were criminalized for years and then charged highway robbery prices for the privilege to not get imprisoned for smoking something the state now makes billions on.

I don't think the blame is on the black market, it's just going to do what it's going to do. I think the bigger issue is with the idea that people were persuaded on this idea of weed sales being a public good because the taxes would be significant and not because of pure volume of transactions and sales tax income. The "social contract" wasn't a philosophical point, but an agreement to legalize it and tax it. Now consumers are reneging on it entirely in their own favor. It'd be like running a home depot and watching your customers ask you to price match with the rate they get buying pipes and wiring ripped out of new homes.
I fully expect it to make legalization efforts more difficult for more moderate or conservative states, as "legalize and tax it" looks a bit more like a lie, and "legalize it and charge normal market rate and normal sales tax" is a less appealing deal. >

This is a propaganda piece. New York has no open licensed stores yet, so of course everyone is buying from unlicensed sellers. Get the dispensaries open and that will start to change. Until then, stories like this aren't worth the data it takes to load them. >

The black market will ALWAYS undercut legal cannabis business as long as there are federal laws on the books disallowing these legal businesses to attach to a legitimate financial institution.  It's almost like the federal government intentionally wants Cannabis to remain a banned substance. >

I don’t know if your joking or not but that’s exactly what the federal government wants. >

I went black market for awhile, I put $750 investment into a grow kit and have been growing my own. The cost of me growing is about $40 a plant (largest harvest on 1 indoor plant was just over half a pound) vs. $250 to $300 an ounce at a dispensary. >

And the real advantage for me is that I know exactly what was put on, and in that plant - Good soil and rainwater >

It's a lie. The story is that New York legalized recreational marijuana two years ago, but then never licensed anyone to grow, sell or distribute. So they get a Wild West situation where people make their own rules.
Here in Washington they had some delays getting up and running but not that bad. Now product is regulated from production to sale for quality and legitimate business practice. The black market is practically non-existent. It boils down to family grows and tax evasion, hobby horticulture, and the major stuff is for export only because it can't get into the regulated chain. 
Because who wants to roll the dice with some shady character and get dubious product, or maybe stabbed or arrested when there's a legit state regulated store clean well lighted with a vast array of product and friendly helpful staff every city mile? To save $10? Please. No.