“California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced nearly a million marijuana plants were eradicated in a multi-agency 13-week enforcement effort to stop illegal grow operations across the state. Furthermore, this annual three-month program, first launched in 1983, is going to be transformed into an ongoing task force.”
I can’t get my head around 1,000,000 ILLEGAL plants. I know there have been a lot of issues, at least in part, because they decided to tax the fuck out of the entire industry…but that’s a lot of plants.
Statewide, that might be true, but a million plants gone is gonna put a dent in someone’s wallet, for sure.
I’d bet those pros are doing a good 2-3lbs per plant?
2,000,000lbs? 1000 tons?
Has to hurt somebody…
We have a system for the legal distribution of cannabis. The cartels are forcing immigrants to work for next to nothing in illegal grows, under threat of killing their families if they don’t comply, so it is hard to judge such an eradication effort as illegal grows are illegal grows and that is part of the risk of living outside the boundaries of the laws.
it’s a very sketchy situation. A lot of people were sold on legal rec because they thought it would take a cut from the head-chopping cartel types. Seems it only made it so hard to go legal and turn a profit that a black market was bound to thrive. Funny how it all works in the end eh?
anyone who believed any [word implying politics removed ] propaganda was definitely fooled. As someone who had been growing since 1987 and has seen how laws actually progress, I would say that the writing has been on the wall the whole time… You cannot legalize nor decriminalize an illegal product whose price point is elevated due to the illegality of the product, and expect the price to remain elevated without some form of outside control… the free market would race to the bottom with bushels of weed for 35 bucks, priced similarly to corn or wheat which are basically valueless without subsidies.
What’s the cost of a legal ounce in Cali?..
Here in Maine there are dispencaries selling for $100/oz, tax included.
That’s pretty hard to compete with. A lot of growers can’t go that low.
Mass was selling legal ounces for $400, due to taxes, and couldn’t understand why nobody was buying them…
I’d bet “those pros” who grow 2 to 3 pound plants weren’t the ones getting their plants popped.
For numbers like that and not seeing major grow ops getting busted all over the news in CA, I’d bet one of my GSC clones that most of those plants were from outdoor grows by the Mexican cartels, as @Tejas said. I’d also bet that very few, if any, of those plants were more than a few ounces.
13 weeks?? 1 million plants???!!! thats a lot of plants for 3 months of busts!! i say just let em grow but “high ranking cannabis exec’s” would disagree
I still have trouble wrapping my head around the whole legalization thing.
This is a good example. Weed is legal but you still get busted for illegal weed.
Put a plant in every yard and there will be no such thing as an illegal grow.
Grow as much as you want to.
Good luck selling it, if everyone that wants it, has too much.
That would end the cartel’s grows for sure.
The illegal grows are seen as competition.
The competition must be wiped out at all costs.
But a plant in every yard means giving up billions of tax dollars.
So you see why sadly that will never happen.
I would like to see a form of legalization where they quit arresting folks for cannabis…Period.