3 ms·

Hey Ashlander! I'm out in the Applegate (as you probably could have guessed). Thank you for adding some more nuance to my post. I agree with everything you'v

Hey Ashlander! I'm out in the Applegate (as you probably could have guessed). Thank you for adding some more nuance to my post. I agree with everything you've written here. It matches my understanding of what happened despite my earlier oversimplifications. There were compounding problems, but I think the story to be told is one of ineffective regulation and underenforcement. The regulators just didn't have a complete understanding of the industry, which introduced loopholes large enough to drive a Mexican cartel-sized truck through. Better representation from industry might have helped, but it's hard to say. In their defense, the market changed underneath everyone. Keep in mind that there was virtually no public awareness of CBD until after it became legal to farm (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=cbd https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=c...). The wink-wink nudge-nudge "hemp" growers knew this, and moved with incredible speed to farm as many acres as possible before the regulators caught up. Somewhat like flooding a small town with Bird scooters in the middle of the night. I'm not saying the industry was perfect beforehand, but it was mostly fine until it became clear that there would be a 1-3 year window for growers to extract maximum profits. At this point the whole valley got ground up in the mighty garbage disposal of capitalism.

mind-blight 4y ago
I was guessing either out there or one of the ones vineyards just outside Ashland :). > The wink-wink nudge-nudge "hemp" growers knew this, and moved with incredible speed to farm as many acres as possible before the regulators caught up. That's super fair. The ODA wasn't culturally equipped to tell whether a company was a cartel front or a legitimate business. Really nice folks, but way outside anything they had experienced. I don't think OLCC would have done any better though. The regulatory response also made 0 sense to me: grandfather in existing hemp growers and block anyone new. That just locked in the people they were trying to get rid of > it was mostly fine until it became clear that there would be a 1-3 year window for growers to extract maximum profits. At this point the whole valley got ground up in the mighty garbage disposal of capitalism. Oof. That, sadly, hits the nail on the head. The folks who were in it for the long term or more than just the money got eaten alive, and then the bubble popped.

mind-blight 4y ago

I was guessing either out there or one of the ones vineyards just outside Ashland :). > The wink-wink nudge-nudge "hemp" growers knew this, and moved with incredible speed to farm as many acres as possible before the regulators caught up. That's super fair. The ODA wasn't culturally equipped to tell whether a company was a cartel front or a legitimate business. Really nice folks, but way outside anything they had experienced. I don't think OLCC would have done any better though. The regulatory response also made 0 sense to me: grandfather in existing hemp growers and block anyone new. That just locked in the people they were trying to get rid of > it was mostly fine until it became clear that there would be a 1-3 year window for growers to extract maximum profits. At this point the whole valley got ground up in the mighty garbage disposal of capitalism. Oof. That, sadly, hits the nail on the head. The folks who were in it for the long term or more than just the money got eaten alive, and then the bubble popped.