Five men have been arrested in a gruesome multiple slaying in a remote area of the Mojave Desert. Six men were fatally shot, and four of them also were burned, in Tuesday’s incident, authorities say.
Recreational marijuana and registered marijuana grows are legal in California. Dicus, however, cited the marijuana black market as a cause of violence.
“The plague is the black market of marijuana and certainly cartel activity, and a number of victims are out there,” he said.
I live in California. I have gummies and a vape that I bought at corner stores. How is this still a thing? I'm genuinely curious. Why are people still dying over pot if I can buy it legally?
In this specific scenario, the problem is black market Marijuana.
In a place where there is a handful of dispensaries, anyone over 21 can walk in and buy Marijuana, where the sheriffs don't give a damm about if you got pot.
The core of this incident was "blackmarket" Marijuana. Probably also with the heightened tensions with a number of dealers getting pinched and lots of sheriff operations in the area.
Why are people still dying over pot if I can buy it legally?
It might not have been heading for California. Lots of states around where it's still illegal as hell. Which the black market was already setup to provide to so they still do it.
I can’t speak for California but in many states in the US medical and recreational weed is expensive.
There is still a black market for it because the black market is cheaper. For example in MA you can either buy it at a dispensary for $60 an 1/8th or go to the black market for half the price.
Not everyone who consumes weed wants to be registered or pay through the nose if they can find a dealer on the black market that is considerably cheaper and anonymous.
The black market will never go away unless they can make recreational access cheaper than what it costs to truck it into the US from Mexico. I don’t ever see that happening.
It's common for dispensaries to sell an 1/8th for ~$15-25, at least in northern California. Just checked a couple local places and see many options for half ounces around $40.
I doubt many people care about anonymity here either. It's all cash transactions, and you just get carded like buying booze - no real registration, except for like rewards points/loyalty programs lol
Plus, a new law just went into effect here that supposedly protects employees from being asked about/discriminated against for their cannabis use, granted there are exceptions for some construction jobs and jobs requiring federal clearances. (AB 2188, for anyone interested)
The legal market is saturated in California. I would guess most of the black market is exporting out of state where it can be sold for more. But I could definitely be wrong! I agree that it's unlikely to disappear until it's unprofitable.
Even in California, lots of illegal pot farms selling for cheaper than legal stores. Less taxes, less Q/C, less overhead etc. dont even need to pay over the border shipping.
Also, if/when they want to harass someone all they need to do is say "sniff sniff I smell marijuana, so now I get to search through all your stuff without a warrant" and they hate losing that
The difference is way more than a dollar or two depending on where in the US you’re referring to.
If you consume an ounce a month you’ll be saving thousands of dollars a year by purchasing off the black market. Seems like a no brainer.
Personally I’d rather spend the extra money for quality control and not having to deal with some dickhead fucking me around. But to each their own. Different priorities for different people.
Somehow my friend in Texas is getting 3 grams of carts from a dealer for like $30, whereas in Rhode Island it's 50 bucks for half a gram. I'm very Puzzled by this.