The Future of Weed in Montana May Look a Lot Like California

Our recreational dope business is only about two weeks old in Montana and I sure hope people consider what may be coming for us.

Take a look at where California is at now. They're entering their fifth year of broad legal marijuana sales, and the Associated Press's Michael Blood just wrote about the struggles facing California this weekend:

Industry insiders say the practice of working simultaneously in the legal and illicit markets is all too commonplace...

The legal businesses are complaining about the heavy taxes and regulations, paired with the thriving illegal sales, which is making it impossible to make a profit.

In order to survive now, the legal sales workers are double-dipping into the underground operations just to get by. And where do you think that will lead California's legal market? Straight to collapse. Their wanted solution is lower taxes and more retail stores, according to the same Association Press article:

Leading California cannabis companies warned Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday that the state’s legal industry was on the verge of collapse and needed immediate tax cuts and a rapid expansion of retail outlets to steady the shaky marketplace.

People are not going to pay much higher prices for legal pot. Here in Billings, our local Drug Enforcement Administration agent told us about warehouses already setting up their growing operations and will eventually cause the same problem for the legal shops.

Folks the problems that are going to come from this are unavoidable, it only took five years to wreak havoc in California, so we will not be immune to those very same problems...

Sure, we don't have a border with Mexico that makes the black market more accessible, but the illegal market will eventually replace the legal market here too. People will always be looking for a deal that saves them money, illegal or not.

See ya here tomorrow at 5 a.m.