For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle. The war on drugs and frequent raids by federal drug agents have helped support the local economy -- keeping prices for street sales of pot high and keeping profits rich.
But high times are changing. Legal pot, under the guise of the California's medical marijuana laws, has spurred a rush of new competition. As a result, the wholesale price of pot grown in these areas is plunging.
"Outdoor growers are having a hard time unloading their fall harvest," Custer says. "And this is six months later and when some people do move it, they don't get nearly the price they were hoping for."
That goes for both legal growers who cultivate limited quantities of pot under the medical marijuana laws and illegal operators who often grow larger amounts.
Prices are now much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says some growers can't get rid of their processed pot at any price.
"We arrested a man who had ... 800 pounds of processed," Allman says. "Eight hundred pounds of processed. And we asked him: 'What are you going to do with 800 pounds of processed?' And he said, 'I don't know.'"
Part of what is going on is jwh-018. It's a new synthetic cannabinoid, is CHEAP and LEGAL -- not just in California. People can buy preparations marketed as K2 or Spice at virtually any head shop -- or get the pure chemical powder via mail order. It's not 100% the same as the real thing, but it's about 95% there. The stuff works, it gets you HIGH. Cheap. Legal. (Probably causes cancer, too). Oh yeah, it also does NOT show up on drug tests. I know a bunch of people who don't smoke weed anymore and just do JWH. |