Here are the roughly current prices for a gram of Cannabis flower:
Medical/Black Market $10
Colorado Retail $20
Washington Retail $30
That’s a significant drop this year in retail prices, likely because supply went up after harvest.
Washington and Colorado could do a billion dollars in 2015 sales, all in cash without banks. It remains to be seen if this is enough to change the federal banking laws.
Both states need to address the issue of home-made hash oil, specifically butane hash oil. Butane is one possible solvent to extract purified THC from the cannabis flowers. Ice water is another, but the pros use CO2 as the extractive agent. Butane is dangerous to work with, but the cheapest and easiest for amateurs, which leads to fires and explosions.
Colorado has some fixes to do with their rules when it comes to local taxation authority, and the “gotcha” issue of cannabis edibles. As Ricardo Baca of the Denver Post put it, edibles appeal to children, and the adults don’t know the dosage. CO has dealt with this issue in the past, so I expect they’ll continue blazing the way as other states follow their work. And they seem to think it’s a problem that tourists can legally buy marijuana, but there is no legal place for them to consume it. Tourists are a huge portion of the customers for retail pot in Colorado, so I expect some establishments to be licensed as legal pot bars, clubs, or cafes.
Washington now has about 100 retail licenses issued, with about 60 stores actually operating. At the rate licenses are being issued, the Liquor Control Board might reach their upper limit of 331 retail licenses in the state by the end of 2015.
By far the biggest issue that Washington needs to address is the lack of any control over the medical marijuana market. There’s a good chance something workable will pass this year, but it will bring it’s own set of issues, meaning a few more years of confusion and disagreements. Washington’s tax rates will have to be reduced this year or next to align more closely with Colorado and Oregon.
Here’s a link to a brief rundown on the discoveries of legal pot in CO and WA.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Legal-weed-states-have-lessons-to-share-5989745.php
Oregon will be constructing it’s regulations for retail marijuana throughout the year. Their law has some dramatic differences from WA and CO, much looser, with a big reduction in the tax rate. They also will be enjoying the “assistance” of the Southern Oregon marijuana growers who are banding together to offer their best advice to the state. Basically, existing regulations in the other states were drawn up without input from stakeholders in the businesses.
The black market, operating under the auspices of loose medical marijuana regulations, will continue to thrive in 2015, dragging down the success of Washington’s efforts in particular.
Even though there are now 23 states with some sort of medical or retail laws openly flouting federal prohibition, it’s impossible to predict when the feds will de-list cannabis as a Schedule 1 illegal drug. As usual in the US, when the businesses get together and pool their money for “lobbying”, it will happen sooner rather than later.