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'The soul of cannabis is gone': Portland marijuana dispensaries rocked by crime, oversaturated market (www.kgw.com)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The soul of cannabis is doing just fuckin dandy in the people who appreciate the plant for what it is. What it's not doing is supporting your insane belief that profits always go up and that you can generate huge profits without consequences.

I've watched dispensaries charge up to $400 an ounce. That's insanity. Absolute nut slapping outrageous shit. I've had the same dealer for more than a decade, and prices haven't ever changed. It's $120/oz for whole flowers, or $100/oz for popcorn buds. I'm sorry if the rest of you can't figure out how to make enough money off of $600-1600/plant when your only costs are lights, dirt, and water.

People don't like being ripped off. Go figure lmao

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That's crazy. You can get high end cannabis around me for $100/oz or less because the market is currently oversaturated.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Capitalism never made anything better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't understand, are you saying this like black market weed wasn't also capitalism? Like what is the baseline with weed for which it "never... [got] better" from?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

Capitalism is not just commerce. Capitalism is the idea that you can buy control of a market and use the leverage of your investments (capital) to gain outsized profits off the value of the labors of others.

For sure, there are capitalists in the black market drug trade, but there are also socialists (where the laborers have a greater protected share of the value they generate) and fascists, where violent force is the leverage used to gain profits. I'm not suggesting the black market was good, but it did have the side effect that corporations and politicians could not publicly use their positions of power to capture the markets.

Your local weed dealer is probably out of business, or has graduated to other illicit sales. It's the same thing that happened to mom and pop shops in every town when superstores and the internet crowded them out of business.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

his wholesale transportation business connecting local farms with dispensaries faced mounting difficulties despite initial efforts to succeed.

The more I read this the less sympathy I have for some reason. Emphasis mine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I stopped smoking just because I kept getting weed that was sprayed with crap that made my breath stink and a taste that would stick around for weeks without smoking. So much of it is just poison now, I can see some really big lawsuits in the future because there's no way a lot of this crap they're selling is safe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Babylon destroys everything it touches

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Say what you will about Babylon, it outlasted this country

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Babylon" in this context refers to the oppressive systems of Western society, particularly those rooted in European colonialism and capitalism. Not the ancient civilization.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Who's context is that? I've never heard of referring to Western Civ as Babylon and I cannot puzzle out why you would do so.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

You should listen to more reggae, friend! I borrowed that term from Rastafari. I'm not sure of the history, but I promise I'm not the only one calling Western Civ Babylon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

This all sounds like the market adjusting itself. I don't see an issue.