Just at the Bend – California Licensing and the Black Market

Just at the bend:

For the first few years, the Prop 64 distributors flocked to Humboldt County to buy bulk flowers up on farms just like the old-school dope dealers did for decades. The local farmers all thought to themselves, “This is great. I can just sit on my farm like in the old days, and these guys will buy bulk from me forever.” There was just one problem. If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish…. It’s a fish. Too many of the dealers coming to Humboldt were “phantom distributors,” back-door dealers who got themselves a distro license (or didn’t) for the purpose of sourcing and packaging products to be shipped out of state. The farmers built their future based on the false prospect that they had a bulk market in Southern California. Sorry, the pounds were going to New York! If you think about it, there is no bulk flower market in California large enough to sustain Humboldt County farmers. The County and State also bought this story and have gone on thinking that a lot more farms could be viable in California than turned out to be the case

There exists a group of Humboldt farmers who believe that when interstate commerce opens up to the cannabis industry, New York will again be Humboldt’s Marketplace. Humboldt and New York are bound together like symbiotes. For 30+ years, Humboldt has provided cannabis to New York. With Prop 64, that was still the case. Until now.

It has become apparent that we should have been building in-state brands. The bulk market is an inadequate promise at best, and it will remain so moving forward. But now, I fear that farmers may be running short on time. The state and regulations have been especially slow to help the industry.

New York is in the process of legalizing. In 2024, they will begin supplying themselves. This will do two things. First, it will end the West Coast’s traditional black market. Ironically Americans today STILL think that enforcement is a way to diminish the drug trade. It has only shown over and over to inflame the illicit market. At this point, anyone who thinks enforcement stops crime doesn’t understand the situation. The answer all along was to encourage New York to legalize! Out-of-state sales from California will plummet. The phantom distributors will die out. That’s right, it will get worse than it is now.

If you are illegal.

The second thing that will happen is the legal marketplace in California will start to recover and thrive without so much competition from the traditional market. So let’s be part of it…….

Time is of the essence. California needs to bring immediate closure to licensing. That means stop waiting for the Water Board and the CDFW to totally sabotage our industry, move everyone to annuals now, and get both these agencies to start a moratorium on enforcement.

We have very limited time to establish in-state brands. Today Humboldt boasts over 700 farms and only a handful of brands. Now is the time to brand. The bulk market and interstate sales are not a light at the end of the tunnel. The ostrich impersonations by so many farmers need to stop! I want the craft market to grow.

Listen to Steve as he hosts The Cannabis Show on KMUD Community Radio. The show airs every Monday from 5 to 6 PM Pacific, and it is archived at kmud.org.