MaudlinMutantMollusk: I want to know why the damned prices haven't come down considering the supplies these days

Because they can't just buy huge machines to automate the process.

The precautions required to evade detection make the production of drugs very labor intensive. Grocery-store cashiers, for instance, are more than 100 times as productive as retail drug sellers in terms of items sold per labor hour. Similarly, hired hands working for crack dealers can fill about 100 vials per hour, whereas even older-model sugar-packing machines can fill between 500 and 1,000 sugar packets per minute. This labor intensity of drug production, combined with the high wages demanded for that labor, are what drive up the costs of drugs; by comparison, materials and supplies - glassine bags, gram balances, and even guns - are relatively cheap.

It's because of the union

Local 404 represent!

MaudlinMutantMollusk: I want to know why the damned prices haven't come down considering the supplies these days

Give it time. For now the whole legalization thing is in 2 states, and is brand new. It's also still illegal under federal law, so that will still be in the cost for a while before legal local growers get up to speed (takes a while for plants to grow after all).

Looks like a bag o' schwag.

FishyFred: MaudlinMutantMollusk: I want to know why the damned prices haven't come down considering the supplies these days

Because they can't just buy huge machines to automate the process.

The precautions required to evade detection make the production of drugs very labor intensive. Grocery-store cashiers, for instance, are more than 100 times as productive as retail drug sellers in terms of items sold per labor hour. Similarly, hired hands working for crack dealers can fill about 100 vials per hour, whereas even older-model sugar-packing machines can fill between 500 and 1,000 sugar packets per minute. This labor intensity of drug production, combined with the high wages demanded for that labor, are what drive up the costs of drugs; by comparison, materials and supplies - glassine bags, gram balances, and even guns - are relatively cheap.

Oh god, I could just imagine having a case of cocaine packets. One helluva weekend.

FishyFred: Because they can't just buy huge machines to automate the process.

Well, good. I like the artisanal touches that go into illegal drugs. That little smiley-face stenciled on to each tab of ecstasy... the baroque charm of the bong you made out of your high school wood shop project... the little pinch of chili powder in your crystal meth. You'll miss these things when Nabisco™ takes over the industry and prices all the craft-drug makers out of business.

hubiestubert: In the end when legalization comes--and it will--there will still be folks looking to sell on the streetcorner or out of their apartments, and it will be much like moonshine:

GOD*AMN REVENOOOOOORS!

And what about people who sell to people under 21?

I don't get the argument.
If you can grow pot for quality or grow it for lower cost, why would supporting the criminal overhead make it "better" than the store brands?

/its like claiming moonshine is better than even the cheapest store bought whiskey.
/it only seems that way if you have a taste for watered down rubbing alcohol.

And they deliver!

Isitoveryet: aren't they both getting it from the same grower?

/spoiled here in southern CA, it's hard to find shiatty buds.

This.

I won't get my card as long as my dealer keeps supplying the super duper automatic for me. Why would I need to pay $20/g for the same thing I'm already getting at $10/g?

The dispensaries are just for people who want to pay a premium for the edibles and oil.

Something tells me it's only a matter of time before you're all smoking Monsanto.

Sorry, full legalization will never happen.

The Mob opposes legalization because they know what I know: The same people who deal grass also handle heroin and cocaine, and they want to protect their market.

Small--timers who do not handle any hard narcotics also know what I know: Take the illegal out of it, and prices collapse.

Good example is Cambodia, where grass is 100% legal, and an ounce bag goes for $1 at the Phnom Penh airport---but that's the only place in town you can buy it. A bag of good weed would last me all week, but if I drink a beer---15 minutes later, I want another beer. You do the math.

Then of course we have all these government parasites who make a full time living off it; you think those bastards would actually go out and get a job?

Something rubs me the wrong way in this article. I'm have a VERY hard time believing that these were all legitimate dealers this author "interviewed". He conveniently made it impossible to verify any of his sources, and the whole thing came off reading like it was done by one of the producers of Reefer Madness.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: My ex recently started dealing weed. At first she did it just to "cover the cost of her own weed" but then she ended up buying a scale, a gun, and expanding her customer base to acquantances of coworkers and friends.

She has a professional job, too, so I have no idea why she's engaging in such risky behavior.

I remember a convo with a dealer once. He was talking about how he had just gotten robbed the night before. Guy held him up for all his cash and weed. He shrugged, meh, it's business. Eff that, you could have lost your life for a few hundred bucks. Another dealer was a severe dumbass who invited "clients" TO HIS HOUSE and showed them the safe and everything. Big surprise one day when he's calling up all his clients demanding to know which one broke into his room and took all his stuff. Come to think of it I don't know any dealers who had happy endings regarding that career choice.

Isitoveryet: Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: My ex recently started dealing weed. At first she did it just to "cover the cost of her own weed" but then she ended up buying a scale, a gun, and expanding her customer base to acquantances of coworkers and friends.

She has a professional job, too, so I have no idea why she's engaging in such risky behavior.

that is strange, she must be raking in the cash.
It probably seems like easy money until the risk catches up with her.

/a risk i don't care to take.

She is "hooked on the action," she doesn't care about the money. There are many forms of crime which produce a better income than marijuana, and carry a lesser penalty when (not if) you are caught, but they don't have the cachet of the weed dealer.

Maud Dib: Looks like a bag o' schwag.

[www.thestranger.com image 570x300]

is that even pot? it looks like green 'healthy' spinach spaghett or something. the wheat/vegetable kind nobody eats. its all stringy. y u all stringy, pot? y?!

unrelated: ever had a dream where you are buying pot and end up getting a bag of not-pot from the guy? its never happened to me (although I have been robbed a few times) but i do have bad dreams about it occasionally.

/'here's your sign..."
//still not big on bill ingvall
///doobity dooo slashies!

Larry the Liquidator has something to say about this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL7STmWZ1c

olddinosaur: Sorry, full legalization will never happen.

Living up to your name I see.

Doom MD: Larry the Liquidator has something to say about this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL7STmWZ1c

Link

sorry for the fail up there

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: My ex recently started dealing weed. At first she did it just to "cover the cost of her own weed" but then she ended up buying a scale, a gun, and expanding her customer base to acquantances of coworkers and friends.

She has a professional job, too, so I have no idea why she's engaging in such risky behavior.


Let's go score a lid, How much for a lid of grass??? MMaaannnnn.

Her "professional" job.

thanks to Medical MJ growers/dispensaries in states other than where I live... the availability of amazingly powerful shiat has exploded its gotten to the point where it's harder to find "dirt weed" than high quality product... which is mostly cool... except that when your paying $80 an 8th weight...baking magic brownies suddenly becomes seriously cost prohibitive.

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: olddinosaur: Sorry, full legalization will never happen.

The Mob opposes legalization because they know what I know: The same people who deal grass also handle heroin and cocaine, and they want to protect their market.

Small--timers who do not handle any hard narcotics also know what I know: Take the illegal out of it, and prices collapse.

Good example is Cambodia, where grass is 100% legal, and an ounce bag goes for $1 at the Phnom Penh airport---but that's the only place in town you can buy it. A bag of good weed would last me all week, but if I drink a beer---15 minutes later, I want another beer. You do the math.

Then of course we have all these government parasites who make a full time living off it; you think those bastards would actually go out and get a job?

"The Mob" and small-time pot dealers have zero influence on federal drug legislation.

You believe that, tell me what YOU have been smoking! Narcotics are big business, bigger than steel, bigger than anything except maybe cars. You think they are going to go away without a fight, when they can produce cocaine for 5 cents a gram and sell it fort $100?

Get real.

MaudlinMutantMollusk: "I want to know why the damned prices haven't come down considering the supplies these days"

Because price is set by willingness to pay. Not cost.
When you're selling every scrap you put in a baggy, the expected direction for price to move is *up*.
Even if your competitors show up and can grow for half the cost, if they can *also* sell every scrap they grow for the same price as you, why would they cut price?

When supply so outstrips demand that it becomes waste for not selling, is when prices will go down. And that's going to take a while.

Also, because no-one can know when or if the Feds will show up and fark your operation, supply is still more constrained than people give it credit for.
I don't see legal growers springing up in addition to former illegal supply. What I see is formerly-illegal growers going legit and demand for imported stuff drying up as people would rather spend a bit more at a dispensary than have to deal with their old dealers and all the bullshiat that entailed. So imported supply is largely disappearing from the equation and that's also supporting higher prices.

Yet another dealer said he fears additional scrutiny from the police as the state tries to protect its new weed-selling powers. "They're gonna crack down on dealers because their whole thing was to get rid of the black market," he said. "I'm not worried about it right now, but a year from now, who knows?"

You could be peddling children on the street and the cops might or might not take an interest, but start interfering with a government revenue stream and you'll have a nightstick up your ass before you can blink.

olddinosaur: Sorry, full legalization will never happen.

The Mob opposes legalization because they know what I know: The same people who deal grass also handle heroin and cocaine, and they want to protect their market.

Small--timers who do not handle any hard narcotics also know what I know: Take the illegal out of it, and prices collapse.

Good example is Cambodia, where grass is 100% legal, and an ounce bag goes for $1 at the Phnom Penh airport---but that's the only place in town you can buy it. A bag of good weed would last me all week, but if I drink a beer---15 minutes later, I want another beer. You do the math.

Then of course we have all these government parasites who make a full time living off it; you think those bastards would actually go out and get a job?

So you're saying because the guys who control the illegal market don't support legalization means it will never happen?

While I don't doubt that full on "everything is fair game" legalization will never happen, I do think pot will eventually be legalized at a federal level. The amount of money being spent to combat a problem that is really a non-issue is absurd, plus the tax benefits the government would rake in from the sales are too much to ignore. That's not counting the new markets/jobs that would be created for growing, distributing, selling, etc. And that only accounts for smokeable product. The hemp industry would boom like crazy creating even more jobs.

Yet the government parasites who currently make a full time living off of it wouldn't really be affected from pot legalization. Their priorities would shift from marijuana enforcement, to heroine, cocaine, meth, etc, etc. There's a whole host of others narcotics that are far more deadly and pose actual risk to the public they could/should be dedicating their time to. A harmless plant that makes you wanna eat some cheetohs is not something they should care about.

Plus if they want to stamp out the illegal market, the simple solution is to legalize it, tax it, and keep the prices either in line with what you pay illegally or slightly less. Since there's no risk for legal distribution, you'll have no price hike for the risk being taken. You can stamp out the illegal market by simply controlling the prices to the point they can no longer profit. At which time they'll move on to some other substance to make their money.

Now you could say legalization will merely make it cheaper for the criminals to sell it. Buuuut if you force licensing for sales, distribution, and growing then it's still illegal for an unlicensed individual to do any of those things. Thus putting them in the crosshairs of johnny law again. So the risk would still exist for the apartment salesman, but the 7-11 down the street corner will happily sell you a pack of Marlboro greens at a lower, legal, rate.

Maud Dib: Looks like a bag o' schwag.

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It's PNW weed it has moss on it.

the quality of street weed is definitely comparable, in this area anyway. the prices are competitive too. the new thing around here is a nickel bag that's a half gram of top shelf.

/let the free market something something

olddinosaur: Good example is Cambodia, where grass is 100% legal, and an ounce bag goes for $1 at the Phnom Penh airport

Really?

I paid 4X that for about a half oz in rural Cambodia! Looked, smelled and had mega-seeds like Mexi-dirt but, unlike Mexidirt, it had a really powerful stoney kick to it. I could have bought that bag for 50 cents and saved myself $3.50!?!

/doesn't exactly feel ripped off

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: My ex recently started dealing weed. At first she did it just to "cover the cost of her own weed" but then she ended up buying a scale, a gun, and expanding her customer base to acquantances of coworkers and friends.

She has a professional job, too, so I have no idea why she's engaging in such risky behavior.

free weed man

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom: My ex recently started dealing weed. At first she did it just to "cover the cost of her own weed" but then she ended up buying a scale, a gun, and expanding her customer base to acquantances of coworkers and friends.

She has a professional job, too, so I have no idea why she's engaging in such risky behavior.

.
It sounds like you're missing part of the story. Since she's your ex I'm not going to tell you the rest of her story.

I agree with what a lot of folk here have stated. I have a few friends that grow and sell on the side. They take a great deal of pride in their product and rightfully so. Kinda like my friends that brew their own beer.

I live in Colorado. I never got my medical card but a few friends did. After the novelty of oils and edibles wore off they all pretty much returned to their regular dealer. Went to school in Alabama (War Eagle) where homegrown was usually a derogatory term. Here it is a mark of quality and pride.

/And as MFAWG said, "They deliver".
//And hang out, have dinner and play some video games.
///I also get other items from them.
////Shrooms around here are pretty good.
//Extaslashies

Another guy, dressed in a fur hat and gold chain...

I find it a little too cold to go without pants.
It must be some good weed.

Mazzic518: You buy ecstasy with stuff stenciled onto the pills?

Yes, but only if it's locally sourced and has a low carbon footprint.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: olddinosaur: Good example is Cambodia, where grass is 100% legal, and an ounce bag goes for $1 at the Phnom Penh airport

Really?

I paid 4X that for about a half oz in rural Cambodia! Looked, smelled and had mega-seeds like Mexi-dirt but, unlike Mexidirt, it had a really powerful stoney kick to it. I could have bought that bag for 50 cents and saved myself $3.50!?!

/doesn't exactly feel ripped off

Production cost of marijuana is on the order of 23 cents a pound, not even that much if Mexican labor is used.

Hell, it might not even be that expensive. If I have a big mechanized farm, I am going to sell the stalks for rope, the seeds for a food grain, the leaf for paper and the flowertops for schwag. The profit I make on all the mundane products will more than pay for the cost of cultivation, so the smokable part is actually free. Problem here is, how are you going to compete with me if I sell premium bud at $1.00 per ounce?

Who is going to stand on the street corner all day long selling bags, if all he could make is $1--$2 an hour?