Yeah @shag , we have. And when the Federales decide that some pot smoking patriot has said “too much” or their words have cause too many to question the lies they’ve been force fed, they will most likely begin persecuting those individuals with the harshest penalties the law doesn’t allow but know they can get away with.
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To get things back on topic… I can’t seem to find any non-gated news sites with recent articles about it, but dispensaries are closing in MA. Trulieve exited the state earlier in the summer, and now (admittedly oversaturated) Northampton had another closing (Jack’s, which also closed their Pittsfield location).
https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/news/trulieve-massachusetts-exit-california-retail-closure/
Prices have dropped significantly since sales began a few years ago. It used to be that $50 an eighth was the standard price (with taxes, 60), but it’s dropped quite a bit (I saw an article that said $20 is the new standard, but from the dispo menus I checked that seems a little low, maybe $20 for specials, more like $30 as a standard price? Could be that some areas are more saturated and/or have lower overhead).
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Also, Curaleaf, another MSO, sold their VT operations to locally owned Zen Barn Farms.
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The Cannbiz over-saturates, and drags in cash, then high tales it to the next state to make more money. It’s a major scam. Use big money to drag as much money in from the opening of “legal” recreational, closing out any possibility of small locals from getting into the biz, then ditch the state when the market goes to hell.
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I did notice in one thing I read about Trulieve that they’ve been exiting a number of states, seemingly in order to focus on Florida (and are pushing to have adult use on the ballot there in 2024).
TBF it’s been the reality in every state that the money is to be made in year 1-3 of legalization, and then it drops off.
I’m curious how low prices in one state affect sales (and pricing) in neighboring states. MA as I said, getting pretty cheap, but VT the prices still generally seem to be $45 and up for an eighth. Much less MSO activity in VT.
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Not really surprised to hear that the largest, most overweight and least efficient operators are cutting costs in states where they overexpanded. Sometimes that involves closing stores. It’s not just happening in cannabis; Wells Fargo announced a few days ago that they’re planning to spend something like a billion dollars on severance this year. Interest rates are at their highest mark in 23 years, and financial conditions are tight. Forcing businesses to close, cut jobs and slow down the economy in order to stop wage growth is the whole point, for better or worse. 
The MSOs are also starting to focus more on international sales. Cura mentioned on their Q1 earnings call earlier this year that they were focusing a lot of their energy on the European market.
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I can see the DEA monitoring dispensaries close to state borders to bust people who take it from one legal state to another legal state just because that is still a federal crime.Since the policy has changed to leave it alone in legal states, they don;t have those easy busts any more, so busting cross state movement could become an easy replacement to make work.
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I can say people in the NY market we’re expecting the high prices of Massachusetts in the market for a while. It has already dropped, 25 for an eighth in nyc, 50-60 for gram carts. There are higher priced products also, but the high prices everyone expected aren’t here. If the illegal stores are shut, the prices may go back up
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You never know, but I haven’t heard anything about the DEA bothering to get involved… and there’ve been dispensaries in MA that largely catered to NY customers for years now. It might be more worth their while somewhere else?
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Once you get prices down to that level I suspect it’d be pretty hard to foist $50 eighths off on people, even if the numbered of dispensaries are low for awhile (prices only remained low in MA until there was sufficient competition amongst dispensaries). I went a few times in the early days but I also had unregulated connections that offered much lower prices for a similar product.
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The dispensary competition is the only thing that will temporarily boost price points. Everyone thinks that indoor is magically going to get those 69-70 dollar eighth prices. Personally I see the prices staying were they are.
I believe Massachusetts was able to keep prices higher because of the added ny demand. As soon as ny opened up the prices in Massachusetts started to drop
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I think part of the issue in MA is the outdoor harvest, I’m curious to see if prices rise in say February. I won’t be smoking the crappy weed from MA, but I’m curious to see the effect.
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Upstate NY we’re at anywhere from 30-60 for 1/8ths (way before taxes)
Not that i’m paying for buds anymore lol
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Price plus 13 percent sale tax. So a 30 dollar eighth is 33.90 if my math is correct. @Not-Notjosh
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I have a feeling many Missouri farmers will pay little attention to regulations, but will consider cannabis a blessing of their God and continue.
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“it’s been the reality in every state that the money is to be made in year 1-3 of legalization, and then it drops off.” Every time a new fast food opens, the cars line up around the block - for a month or two. A year later, two or three cars.
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This is how it went in OK. Still havent been in a dispo here.
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Wasn’t Oregon the exception that proved the rule since they’ve produced more than could be sold just about every year since legalization, IIRC.
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