[Vision2020] Colorado’s pot-growing market getting bigger

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (October 1, 2014) Spokesman-Review.

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Colorado’s pot-growing market getting bigger
DENVER – Colorado’s new marijuana industry is in for a brand-new element today – competition. 

The state gave medical marijuana dispensaries and growers a nine-month exclusive on the new recreational pot business, fearing an unmanageable explosion of new businesses. 

The grandfathering period expires today, meaning pot shops and growers who weren’t in business before voters approved recreational pot in 2012 are just now able to enter the market. 

“There’s going to be a price war coming. It’s inevitable,” predicted Toni Fox, a marijuana grower and owner of a Denver pot shop. Fox has received a license for a second shop opening today in Salida. 

Colorado is issuing licenses for 46 more pot shops, in addition to about 200 already in place. Colorado also is licensing 37 more growing facilities and 13 new product manufacturers who make marijuana-infused products. 

The expansion means pot prices for consumers could soon drop. Recreational marijuana in Colorado currently wholesales for about $1,800 to $2,500 a pound, depending on quality. The addition of new growers starting today could push the price below $1,000 a pound once those plants mature. 

Until now, Colorado’s pot prices have been steep – with customers paying up to $400 an ounce before taxes – because of production caps tied to the pre-existing medical marijuana market. Colorado regulators feared an unmanageable proliferation of new pot shops and growers. Now, the market is getting bigger for the first time. 

“Allowing for new entrants into the market will better facilitate a free-market determination of price,” Andrew Freedman, director of marijuana coordination for Gov. John Hickenlooper, said in a statement. 

But some warn Colorado needs to watch for overproduction, which could give growers an incentive to sell pot illegally, either out of state or to people under 21. 

“We need to produce in Colorado what’s being legally consumed, and no more,” said Mike Elliott, head of the Marijuana Industry Group. 

Also today, Colorado’s pot industry sees the end of the state’s so-called “70/30 Rule,” which stipulated that pot shops had to grow 70 percent of what they sold. The rule was instituted in 2010 to address concerns that medical marijuana shops were acquiring marijuana from the black market. The rule was extended into the recreational market for the first few months, also to reduce volatility. 

The end of the “70/30 Rule” means pot retailers don’t necessarily have to grow anything they’re selling. For now, though, retailers say they’ll wait and see how the market changes before considering letting others grow their inventory.

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Legalize it!  Regulate it!  Tax it!





Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
  
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