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For perspective Colorado has 549 retail establishments and 574 medical establishments (although many overlap) while having ~3/20 the population of California. W

For perspective Colorado has 549 retail establishments and 574 medical establishments (although many overlap) while having ~3/20 the population of California. While obviously Colorado has had retail cannabis since 2012/13, both states have areas strongly for and strongly against legalization. Considering that the cities that do allow rec cannabis include Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego, the number of retail establishments seems very low even if they were limited to only these cities. Whats interesting is that California's licensing is done through their Food and Agriculture Department while Colorado's is done through the Department of Revenue.

jngreenlee 8y ago
Reporter from CO here. I think this is the crux of the matter. If the points about a strong underground market in the article are true, it's (IMO) due to a weakened attempt at decriminalization. Very much like bittorrents before netflix/prime were widely available with large catalogs. Here in Sunny CO, the prop was a Constitutional Amendment, guaranteeing the right of each state citizen to grow and possess their own Marijuana, which lead to sales. -Only two cities (Colorado Springs and a mountain town IDK)- created local exemptions against retail sales. They are now suffering with badly damaged roads and limited tax revenues to fix them, compared to cities right next door that capture all the sales. Hampered decriminalization does not rid us of the black market. The [THC] black market is _gone_ in CO because who needs it? Questionable products, limited availability, difficult logistics...no, you go to the local store and five minutes later can be higher than 5280'. EDIT: As CP says, there were more than two cities banning sales. Actually a lot more than I knew. I'll stand by my conclusion though. The full list is here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:11yRzRkVAJgJ:www.cml.org/rmj-action-visual/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:11yRzRk...
- bigfartchili 8y ago
  There are a lot more cities than Colorado Springs that don’t allow retail including many of the surrounding Denver cities.
  - jngreenlee 8y ago
    Correct and acknowledged in my comment, good call.
- briandear 8y ago
  Bad roads have nothing to do with pot taxes, it has everything to do with local priorities.
  - jngreenlee 8y ago
    It does have something to do with it, at least in the reflective case where surplus $$ allows street repair projects (among other things)
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  That brings up a good possible solution... Limit any/all state subsidies for cities/counties that ban pot. If you want money for roads/schools/etc... you can get it out of the pot fund, but you have to allow retails sales in your county to benefit.
code_duck 8y ago
Both Colorado and California had significant commercial medical cannabis industries for years and years before going recreational. Why is that not often brought up in reporting? It’s already been close enough to recreational in California for years - anyone who wanted to smoke could get a card for 100 bucks and start shopping at dispensaries, or grow their own. I wouldn’t expect any major changes from recreational in a state has had loose medical for years, but for some reason the media does.
- xyhopguy 8y ago
  California's neighbors to the north both have 1500+ establishments. Oregon isn't exactly big, but due to massive overproduction and no sales tax prices in Oregon are approaching sister crops like hop. Wtf is going on in California.
  - barrow-rider 8y ago
    > Wtf is going on in California. Forreal. As someone in Canada watching the weed thing play out, my prediction is that Cali would legalize and then utterly dominate. Like the medical and recreational stuff is there, the weather is great for growing stuff, including weed, and with 40 million people -- more than all of Canada -- there is a huge base of investment capital and consumers to pull from. Why isn't California DOMINATING the global weed trade?
    - newman8r 8y ago
      I believe the current limit in California is a 1 acre parcel - that's in effect until 2023. Many counties in California still don't allow cultivation at all. If you look at the licenses that are being granted (public database), you'll see that none of the Southern California counties are even granting those 1 acre outdoor permits. There's probably other reasons as well, but this might be part of it.
    - code_duck 8y ago
      California has had a leading role in the black market trade for decades. It’s the legal framework that has been out of sync.

jngreenlee 8y ago

Reporter from CO here. I think this is the crux of the matter. If the points about a strong underground market in the article are true, it's (IMO) due to a weakened attempt at decriminalization. Very much like bittorrents before netflix/prime were widely available with large catalogs. Here in Sunny CO, the prop was a Constitutional Amendment, guaranteeing the right of each state citizen to grow and possess their own Marijuana, which lead to sales. -Only two cities (Colorado Springs and a mountain town IDK)- created local exemptions against retail sales. They are now suffering with badly damaged roads and limited tax revenues to fix them, compared to cities right next door that capture all the sales. Hampered decriminalization does not rid us of the black market. The [THC] black market is _gone_ in CO because who needs it? Questionable products, limited availability, difficult logistics...no, you go to the local store and five minutes later can be higher than 5280'. EDIT: As CP says, there were more than two cities banning sales. Actually a lot more than I knew. I'll stand by my conclusion though. The full list is here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:11yRzRkVAJgJ:www.cml.org/rmj-action-visual/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:11yRzRk...

bigfartchili 8y ago
There are a lot more cities than Colorado Springs that don’t allow retail including many of the surrounding Denver cities.
- jngreenlee 8y ago
  Correct and acknowledged in my comment, good call.
briandear 8y ago
Bad roads have nothing to do with pot taxes, it has everything to do with local priorities.
- jngreenlee 8y ago
  It does have something to do with it, at least in the reflective case where surplus $$ allows street repair projects (among other things)
gremlinsinc 8y ago
That brings up a good possible solution... Limit any/all state subsidies for cities/counties that ban pot. If you want money for roads/schools/etc... you can get it out of the pot fund, but you have to allow retails sales in your county to benefit.

code_duck 8y ago

Both Colorado and California had significant commercial medical cannabis industries for years and years before going recreational. Why is that not often brought up in reporting? It’s already been close enough to recreational in California for years - anyone who wanted to smoke could get a card for 100 bucks and start shopping at dispensaries, or grow their own. I wouldn’t expect any major changes from recreational in a state has had loose medical for years, but for some reason the media does.

xyhopguy 8y ago
California's neighbors to the north both have 1500+ establishments. Oregon isn't exactly big, but due to massive overproduction and no sales tax prices in Oregon are approaching sister crops like hop. Wtf is going on in California.
- barrow-rider 8y ago
  > Wtf is going on in California. Forreal. As someone in Canada watching the weed thing play out, my prediction is that Cali would legalize and then utterly dominate. Like the medical and recreational stuff is there, the weather is great for growing stuff, including weed, and with 40 million people -- more than all of Canada -- there is a huge base of investment capital and consumers to pull from. Why isn't California DOMINATING the global weed trade?
  - newman8r 8y ago
    I believe the current limit in California is a 1 acre parcel - that's in effect until 2023. Many counties in California still don't allow cultivation at all. If you look at the licenses that are being granted (public database), you'll see that none of the Southern California counties are even granting those 1 acre outdoor permits. There's probably other reasons as well, but this might be part of it.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    California has had a leading role in the black market trade for decades. It’s the legal framework that has been out of sync.