Anybody notice a drop in trade? I've got a few friends who buy from me for a very good price I sell a bag for $140 and the government sells more or less the same quality at over $450. People do seem to be smoking more pot though, makes staying home and quality time with the couch easier.
I have a social distancing procedure that everybody follows, they come to my place and I can't visit the seniors home until this shit is dealt with and that was about it for deliveries. I have a buddy there who is younger and in a wheelchair I met while visiting my sister, I'd give him a bag a month, sometimes I'd wheel him down to the park next door for some drone FPV flying, with him wearing guest goggles and along for the ride very stoned and loving it.
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Legal sales have boomed since March, though it’s hard to say how many customers previously bought from illegal dealers.
www.politico.com
The pandemic is eating away at the illicit marijuana market
Legal sales have boomed since March, though it’s hard to say how many customers previously bought from illegal dealers.
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The legal marijuana industry has spent years battling illegal sellers who have eaten away at its market share and undercut its prices.
But the coronavirus has proven to be a boon for legal pot shops, as customers fear the risks associated with inhaling questionable products and are nervous about letting sellers into their homes.
Legal operations have moved quickly to take advantage of the situation, seizing on relaxed rules to expand shopping options in states across the country, including curbside pickups and deliveries.
Also, pandemic-frazzled Americans are simply getting stoned more often.
“It's understandable that people may be more hesitant to get their products from sources that are unregulated,” said Kris Krane, CEO of 4Front Ventures, which operates dispensaries in multiple states. “They may not want to go to their dealer’s house, or they may not want to have their dealer come into their house, at a time when people are social distancing and not supposed to be interacting with people that they don't know.”
In addition, cities that never allowed pot shops in their towns, even in states where marijuana is legal, are rethinking the local bans in search of fresh tax revenue. And more people than ever are registered as medical marijuana patients: Florida added nearly 5,000 patients a week in June, and more than 50,000 since March.
The data is murky — credible sales figures on illegal marijuana transactions are inherently difficult to come by — and it’s likely that those sales are also booming as anxious Americans smoke more weed while hunkered down. But many close industry watchers believe the current circumstances are pushing more Americans into state-legal markets. Revenues are expected to hit $17 billion this year, according to New Frontier Data — a 25 percent spike over 2019.
Mitch Baruchowitz, managing partner at cannabis investment firm Merida Capital Partners, argued in a paper in May that the pandemic is “cannibalizing” the illegal market. He hasn’t seen anything in the ensuing months to change that assessment.
“The vast majority of the current growth in the cannabis space is being driven by consumers transitioning from the black market to the legal market,” Baruchowitz wrote.
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