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A recent article in Oregon Business made waves in this state and around the country — and grabbed our attention as we were preparing for a trip to southern Oregon. The article looked at the economic effect of marijuana, tracing it from glassblowers to fertilizer makers to medical-marijuana-card recommenders. It painted a picture of an above-ground economic engine that has sprouted from (but not replaced) an underground trade.
At the same time, both law enforcement and pro-pot activists have complaints about the gray areas in Oregon's current system.
In fact, pot has been all over the news in the last few months. NPR explored many financial and legal questions in their multi-part series "The New Marijuana." Initiative efforts throughout the country aim to liberalize marijuana laws. And in Oregon, backers of Initiative 28 hope to put a measure before voters in November that would bring marijuana dispensaries to the state.
In our first of three shows from southern Oregon, we'll dig into the economic impact of pot in the region. Is it possible to disentangle the money generated from the legal and illegal trade in marijuana? How would dispensaries change the equation?
Do you grow medical marijuana as a cardholder or a caregiver? How much money do you spend on your crop? Are you a baker, or a gardening consultant, or a glassblower? How is business? And how do you assess the economic impact of pot in your neck of the woods?
Note: this show is a part of our Rural Economy Project.
Tagged as: marijuana · rural economy · small business · southern oregon
Photo credit: Jaypeg21 / Creative Commons
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What is the implication of legalizing a formerly illegal product? If California passes the Marijuana legalization what is the effect on the market of this NOW very LUCRATIVE product?
THere is an illegal Premium of MJ. Growers, transporters and sellers risk FELONY CONVICTION and PRISON TIME. THerefore they get an added premium for their risks. That is why drug lords use Planes, Helicopters, Submarines, Jet Backpacks, Parachutes and extensive tunnels to transport what is really a cheap herb.
This premium is variously estimated from 100x to 1000x the natural cost of the product. So the REAL price of the MJ is really the cost of production of growing a garden plant, let's say a TOMATO plant. So the $5,000 price in absence of the illegal Premium is really only $5.00 per plant or at most $50.00.
If it were legal, where is the natural sites of production? Answer: Like any COMMODITY, it will grow in commercial agricultural fields in Third World countries, most conveniently MEXICO. Cheap labor, free sunshine, known soil fertility, familiarity in plant pathologies and unregulated use of Herbicides and Pesticides.
It will be as simple and as cheap as growing a Tomato. Yes most are grown in California and the cheapest come from Mexico. Some people grow in their own backyards what they feel are the Tastiest Heirlooms. But the price of 5-10x more than the commercial grade and the inconvenience of backyard gardening will drive people to cheaper global NAFTA products. And thus this warm weather plant will migrate south and so will the market. You will see Mexican plantations the size of an average Iowa Corn Farm, 2000 acres.
Hasta La Vista MJ Bubble. Perhaps we will be too 'stoned' to care.
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Considering the cost of leveraging a large portion of the legal system to pursue, prosecute, and incarcerate instead of having the benefit of a taxable income, isn't it about time we look at whether this economy should be moved more into the mainstream?
Restricting pot is like the 55mph speed limit: the law is well known to be ignored at best and an encouragement to hang out with those of far more sinister intent at worst.
Before any of you get all high (no pun intended) and mighty, please remember that our state already depends on revenue from alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. Let's at least share the economic benefit of this green plantation crop and make equally good taxpayers out of the growth and resale providers.
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You people up here in Northern Oregon have no idea what it is like to live below Cottage Grove. Over half the property is owned by the federal government down there. Only in the confined valleys is there level land to build on and you had better be within twenty miles of I-5 if you are going to make some kind of living. To supplument my living on less than 25K a year I would fly my friends packaged weed to Southern Cal. My friend had a large grow operation in the Applegate Valley and she helped several of her friends to make a living. Its about time that weed is made leagle.
One time while I was refueling my aircraft at the Medford Airport when two Marine Corp Helicopters landed having flown up from 29 Palms. One of the Helo's was a Cobra Gunship and other a Huey which was the support helo for the Cobra. You people at OPB who don't have a clue on what it cost to fly anything let alone military aircraft ( better start looking at police operations and their aviation costs). Those two Marine Helo's cost over 20K per hour and it took at lest four hours to fly up to MFR. Jackson Co. used that Cobra in an operation called "Coyote" to look for weed grows on public land. So instead of flying off to my landing area I just kept my plane at MFR and watched then. When ever they left I would tell my friends which heading the Corbra has heading. I knew how much fuel that helo can carry and how long it could stay in the air.
Southern Oregon needs to develop new jobs weed is just part of the answer because you people in Northern Oregon don't give a rats a--- on how citizens in the region make a living.
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Howdy--
I hope you'll also be discussing Initiative 73, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which would fully legalize marijuana. I also hope you'll help cut through some of the hype, so we can have an honest discussion, without opening proponents to the type satire in Jacob's post.
The numbers in a legal market won't look anything like the black market. Prices will fall dramatically if weed can be grown and processed without fear of arrest. So the tax benefits won't be quite the boon some have suggested.
However, there will be significant ancillary benefits. For instance, legal marijuana will take money out of the black market, and lower cost pot will leave users with more money to spend in other areas of the economy.
Plus, those prisons the governor is struggling to keep open could be closed if we stop jailing marijuana growers and sellers. Many of these people would not be on the wrong side of the law if it weren't for marijuana. Once or twice in my life I've been in possession of enough pot to go to prison, but it wasn't because I seek illicit occupations. I'm just fond of marijuana.
Opponents will blow all kinds of smoke about the dangers of pot. They'll make outrageous claims about the strength of modern weed, promising chaos and mayhem. None of it is true. Even the effect of strongest marijuana pales in comparison to a six-pack of beer. While alcohol clouds judgement, impairs motor skills, and lowers inhibitions, marijuana simply shifts our perceptions. Behind the wheel, according to verifiable studies, marijuana users become hypervigilant--the opposite of drinkers (or cell phone users).
All of this applies to medical marijuana as well, but the medical use law doesn't go far enough. Many people are using this drug therapeutically, although they don't qualify under Oregon's restrictive medical use law.
As Jacob notes, with his tongue in cheek, the medical use law is already being subverted and used to generate grey market income. It's much like capital-P Prohibition, when companies like Walgreen's took advantage of medical use clauses to build their businesses by selling medicinal whiskey.
We need to face up to this issue more honestly and end this modern prohibition.
Happy Trails,
Ron
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Alcoholic beverages are a formerly illegal product. You can die from an alcohol overdose. Alcohol consumption has been directly responsible for many deaths. Yet it is still sold and taxed for government profit. Tobacco products as well have caused many deaths, but is also very profitable for the government and so it is still available. Marijuana consumption can not be overdosed on. Billions of dollars are being wasted on a product almost everyone under 60 has used making the vast majority of citizens today criminals. It is also proven that marijuana is not a "gateway drug". I do feel our resources would be better used if marijuana were legalized as is liquor and tobacco products, perhaps sold in liquor stores next to the cigars.
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Regarding the legality of selling drug paraphenalia (i.e. pipes), I thought that the 9th Distrcit Court Ruling of United States vs. Stoianoff made that very legal nationwide. Why does your guest say otherwise?
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Frankly, I have a hard time buying the concept of medical marijuana. I live in an area where several of my neighbours hold cards, including people I know. They are always 'bending' the rules... hiding plants, hiding extra product... and my next door neighbour's constant flow of traffic coming and going at all hours of the day and night I imagine has little to do with his so-called 'medicinal needs'... and I am not comfortable with the sort of people that this grow operation next door attracts.
The enforcement for keeping these guys within the constraints of the law is minimal at best. People become growers to profit, I've heard some acquaintances brag about their huge monthly income from being a grower.
I don't disagree with the use of this drug, as long as it doesn't adversely affect me, or my property value, and in truth, I wonder how much my property value is affected by the frequent and unmistakable pong of pot hanging around it thanks to my neighbour, not to mention the constant traffic. The fact that this is a legal issue creates all these factors that have adverse effects on everyone else, including attracting crime and criminals. What people choose to do with their own bodies is their business.... but when it starts ruining my time at home and taking dollars off the full value of my home, I have issues with that.
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the claim that your guest made about the people he deals with (being concerned exclusively with the legality of what they're doing) seems suspect to me. Though the laws have become more flexible with regard to growing for a permited medical user, it is illegal to take money in exchange for growing. My question is, How can these people afford to pay your guest for his services without earning money for their grow operation?
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They have jobs.
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To the caller who questioned being high on a drug as acceptable:
Percocet, Vicodin, Morphine, Demorol, Codiene, Xanax, Sudafed, Nyquil, Prozac, etc....all cause "highs."
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Cheapest High(Free) : Hyperventilation.
Next Cheapest High involves a One Cent Plastic Bag: Carbon Dioxided Hypoventilation. Breathe thru a plastic bag. Breathing gasoline can do it but it is almost $3/ gallon.
Some People can even get 'High' rising too quickly from reclining. Or doing a headstand for too long.
Bored, underachieving young people try the darndest things to fill the hours of the day.
Why can't they get a high from running a 4 minute mile, climbing Mt Hood, Swimming across the Columbia River, doing challenging calculus problems, or solving issues like turning dog poop into biofuel.
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As of June 11, 2010 there were 39,501 OMMP patients, over 28,000 individual growers, 20,339 patients with a caregiver, and 3,409 physicians who have recommended a patient for the OMMP. In Jackson and Josephine counties together, there are 5039 growers and nearly 6000 patients.
The OMMP is adding approximately 1000 new patients to the program every week, which means there are approximately 1500 total cardholders added every week.
The Oregon Medical Marijuana Law has been in effect for 11 years. The average age of patients on the program is 57 and the latest trend shows middle aged people getting their parents signed up for the OMMP, so the majority of patients are all grandma's and grandpa's who want a better quality of life that cannabis makes possible.
Cannabis is a relatively harmless substance that helps a wide variety of ailments and isn't toxic to the liver.
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I don't see why cannabis should be considered any different under the law than beer or wine. Science shows that cannabis can be less physically harmful than alcohol, and it is certainty presents less of a danger to society. In the future, when the political climate has moved past the stigma of cannabis, we will see it produced in the same way we now see beer, wine, coffee and tobacco cultivated as artisan products. Oregon would be the capital of what would equate to the "micro-brew" scene in beer. Oregon could be an amazing cannabis growing region, as certain areas are now prized for their grapes or coffee or fine cigar output. And that is not to mention the incredible economic potential of the hemp industry for a multitude of markets. Such a situation would be a major economic benefit for the state. I support full legalization of cannabis.
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Yes, marijuana should be fully legal---right now! But, marijuana is not a positive. Like alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is a negative. Marijuana is a drug---and it has dramatic effects on the person---this should seem obvious, but doesn't appear to be obvious to most people---if it didn't dramatically alter the user, it wouldn't have such a strong appeal, users wouldn't go to such extremes to use it, and advocate it. You can't boost about how great something is, if it doesn't really do much. To me, any substance that people seek with such a desire and need, because of its effects on consciousness, is pathetic!---and shouldn't be exalted. Marijuana should simply be tolerated---like that catnip that it is.
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I respect your opinion and your ability to see past it and tolerate users - event hough you believe it's pathetic.
In my opinion, anyone who clings to a religion to get them through the day...is pathetic. Religion is tolerated, like the dogmatic occult it is.
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Yes, I do believe it is pathetic. I have tried very hard, to bare life, as crappy as it is, without an artificial alteration. What has always been odd to me, is the irony (of course a generalization) of the people that often use marijuana, many being of the 'green' persuasion. People advocating a natural lifestyle, and then taking a drug to get through it. Yes, I realize they think of the drug as natural, because, it is a plant---which seems naive at best. It is like thinking of a raw egg as being purer and more divine then a brioche.
One thing that does tie this together, and in a way contrasts this view, is that the 'natural' people tend to embrace and worship their own animal, because they think it is more authentic, and in a way drugs are animalistic---they remind us of our lack of power and how fragile all this consciousness and intelligence is, that we have built over the years---and, perhaps to escape the confines of our animal bodies. Drugs in a way return you to that, they degrade your mind, by shattering the illusion of consciousness, they take your animal to a lower level----they don't free you up, but they free you down with their own illusions. Drugs are an escape, an entertainment, despite how many times people try to deny this---you always take them to feel better. Even if you already feel good, you wouldn't need them, if you felt good enough. Perhaps, there is nothing wrong with relying on something outside of you, to get you through life. But, I've abandoned god (and religion as you mentioned), and I certainly I am not going to replace it with yet another illusion, another false hope.
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I don't like alcohol. I don't like it, I don't drink, I don't like being around drunk people, so I avoid it.
Does that mean that every person who drinks alcohol should go to jail? Should their lives be destroyed for it? Or can informed adults choose what they want to put in their bodies or not? Alcohol consumption carries many risks (alcoholism, cirrosis, DUI, etc) while remaining perfectly legal. You can go into any grocery store and buy all the alcohol you want.
If you have even a minute amount of cannabis you can be arrested. You cannot overdose on cannabis, no matter how hard you try. It doesn't take much effort to give yourself alcohol poisoning.
Legalize cannabis and regulate it. Sales can be controlled, sales to minors would be prohibited, illegal operations would be out of business, and we could finally get some of the profit made from this incredible plant.
Please don't buy into the anti-cannabis propaganda!
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Unfortunately, when asked, Obama didn't believe Marijuana was a pressing issue. So much for change...
In any event, money is possibly made off the illegality of Marijuana. If our federal government legalized marijuana, many Mexican cartels would lose business and this would potentially effect our economy and definitely effect Mexico's. This is just a speculation, I have no proof to back this idea, I just can't imagine why any government wouldn't want to control and tax Marijuana. It's a HUGE cash crop...perhaps it is more of a cash crop in it's illegal status.
A side thought. Many Marijuana enthusiast do not want medical or government controlled marijuana. Why? Quality.
Right now, the black market has created LEAPS AND BOUNDS in the growing process of Marijuana. Potentcy, taste, look and smell of the plant - simply due to lack of regulatory marketing. Whoever has better stuff, makes the most money. This kind of competition fuels better stuff.
It be nice if the cowards in office, T.Kulongoski and S.Adams, would do something more than "medical marijuana awareness month"...
As for the caller who said he smoked at a young age and it was detrimental. By the sound of his voice, I believe the individual has problems to begin with, possibly exacerbated by smoking Marijuana at an early age...but it would be the same had the individual started drinking at an early age.
I digress...I don't believe we will see anything progress regarding the legalization or decriminalization of Marijuana. It's sad, it's really a fun plant. :(
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Well, that was an interesting show.
Added all up, it seems that making cannabis illegal has turned out to be "much ado about nothing".
It's far past time to legalize pot. And hemp, too.
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Marijuana does not create crime! Period! What does create the crime, that some people associate with Marijuana? Prohibition. This is not rocket science people. A significant portion of our population wants access to Marijuana, they will get what they want, no matter how much money the government wastes on prohibition.
This lesson has been demonstrated time and again throughout human history. When government creates and enforces bad law, the population creates a black market to circumvent the law. The only people who benefit from the current state of affairs are the law enforcement agencies, those who build and run jails, politicians and the black marketers. Do you think that these people will give up the money and power that prohibition affords them. Not likely. Who suffers from this situation? Me you and the rest of the people who have their tax money wasted, and their freedom of choice trampled.
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It looks like everyone is converging from all angles, so here's mine... I have had friends and family members who have used marijuana which has lead to "harder drugs" 90% of the time. If you have "lost" a sister to cocaine who started smoking the "green gateway" drug in high school you might have a different stance than arguing in favor of pot legalization. I was hit by a medicinal marijuana user who was driving under the influance. Where do your rights end and mine begin? While there are responsible drinkers, there are plenty of people that drink and drive, taking innocent lives each year... Full legalization of marijuana would have it's down turns as well, just like alcohol. Is one worse than the other? I do not smoke pot, but I was young once... I developed a problem with alcohol, can that be blamed on the nature of the substance, or because it is legal to anyone of age? Should we ban alcohol and legalize pot? This is a moral issue more than anything else, and all facets should be explored. I think "medical marijuana" has already changed society's view on the drug, what about "medical opium" or "production enhancing meth"? If someone can go to work and be productive for 18 hours straight on meth, why not legalize and regulate meth? I would like to hear from a councelor who works with drug addicts on a daily basis - what are the ramifications of changing laws encouraging or discouraging drug use?
I personally do not drink, smoke weed or do any other sort of drugs. That is a moral choice I made in order to STRENGTHEN the relationships between family and friends, and stay productive at work. Some people are on disability and sit at home all day in pain - so who am I to judge what they do? As long as it is not affecting me or my family I do not have a problem with what they do, but as soon as someone violates my rights "life, liberty and the pursuit of hapiness" I DO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEIR ACTIONS. Is a fine balance between legalization and heavy regulation practical? I guess we will see how this all plays out in the coming years.....
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Comments are now closed.
Bought your house at the market peak and now underwater? Have an adjustable rate mortgage that keeps snowballing? Used a home equity loan to balloon and your consolidate your payment only to squander it on ATV's? Lost your job, spend your days horizontal on the couch, surfing the net and watching tv?
After the Real Estate Bubble, Mortgage Bubble, Consumer Debt Bubble, and Recession, now welcome the NEW BUBBLE that will CURE EVERYTHING:
Turn your home into a MARIJUANA Grow House. 24 hour high intensity lighting for constant growing, climate and humidity control better than the Louvre, temperature and flow controlled aquaponic circulation, volcanic aerated pumice marble matrix with laser drilled holes, organic high potency bat guano fertilizers from the South Pacific, and magical F1 Hybrid seeds from the highlands of Sumatra.
The reward: $5,000 yield per plant.
Save your home. Buy your whole neighborhood because you want the elbow room. New fashion outfits with matching Land Rover SUVs.
And you help your fellow man: save the Baby Boom Generation from Arthritis or at least Migraine headaches. Hey it also prevents Glaucoma if you just smoke just one 18 inch joint a day. Prevent weight loss in cancer patients with the Miracle of the Munchies. And how many depressed Teenagers are there? It even cures Alcoholism!
This is not an addiction but a natural lifestyle--really a sustainable future next to growing your own vegetables and biking to work.
You don't have to be Nostrodamus to see another Bubble coming. At least the Methamphetamine Epidemic occurred during Boom Times. High profits lead to sharp Bubbles. Better stick to growing Zuchini, Peppers and Tomatoes.