YAY! Capitalism and cannabis DO mix!

LET. PEOPLE. OPEN. MORE. STORES.

A tiny tiny percentage of Seattle stoners are even considering buying weed at a legal store because there's like three of them. It's nice that Uncle Ike's has gotten prices down to $10/gram, but Uncle Ike's can't serve the many thousands of stoners in this city, a huge portion of which definitely don't buy their weed a gram at a time. Meanwhile, there's a dispensary on every single block in some neighborhoods. Its absolutely ridiculous. Until there's WAY more legal stores, or better yet, until I can walk into a dispensary and buy recreational weed, this system is going to remain a joke.

Well, duh.

It is a totally new and unexplored market. Of course there are going to be wild swings in supply and demand cycles. This will probably go on for a few years until it stabilizes.

Also, what @2 said. Uncle Ike's is half way across town from me. Between my place and the freeway, there are no less than 6 MMJ shops, one of which is close enough to walk to. With so few legal pot stores in a city the size of Seattle, I'd guess a lot of people are still finding it easier to buy from the black market or any one of a hundred MMJ shops on every other block.

Time to make literally tons of edibles! Just get your proportions right folks, no need to make one brownie send a person to Mars (or the vomitorium). Spread one dose across 4 brownies.

What we are seeing is further confirmation that Washington State, through the agency of the WSLCB, have absolutely no freakin' idea how markets work, or how to respond to them. So the stuff is piling up in warehouses to rot, and the people who want to buy the stuff have nowhere to go, since the stores are only allowed to be no closer than 100 miles of any place where a human who was ever a child has passed by within the past thousand years, or whatever it is.

In the meantime, there are ten zillion "medical" outlets that are completely unregulated and apart from the law that no one knows what to do with.

Take a look at Colorado and how successful their program has been in contrast. They make us look like fools.

If I was dictator, the law would be changed to (a) eliminate all WSLCB functions except age-limit enforcement (i.e., making sure that booze and pot aren't being sold to minors); (b) remove all regulations on the number or siting of stores; and (c) require all stores selling marijuana to have a hard, permanent sign -- banner signs would be punishable by life imprisonment and possibly flogging.

Also, I find it hilarious that sealing the pot and keeping it underground for years is considered a successful outcome.

-algorhythm99 = amen, you nailed it absolutely. My nearest recreational store is an hours drive away. The *lawmakers* are on drugs if they think that the current tiny number of outlets will put anything more than the tiniest dent in the black market trade! I'd love to go 100% above board with my purchases, but it's utterly not feasible whether at $10 per gram or $35 when I can't even find a store in my area.

"Supply outstrips demand for unreasonably high prices."

Black market prices are still way lower. If they want to horde instead of lowering prices more power to em, but don't complain people aren't (still) lining up around the block to get ripped off.

There's some good news - the State is about to lift the limit on the number of 502 licensed stores and fold the unregulated 'medical' market under 502. All the stores will only be able to buy from 502 licensed producer processors, so that supply will quickly disappear. In the meantime 9 or the 21 licensed stores in Seattle are open with several more coming online soon. At the same time local municipalities are going after the most blatant illegal grow operations and retailers and closing them down. By this time next year most of these issues will be solved, and we'll be debating the bill that lowers taxes on MJ and allows for smoking lounges. And fnarf will be pointing out how much better the Washington system is than Colorado's mess.

Glad this was posted. I saw a story about Colorado's success with recreational MJ via Facebook and there were a lot of comments complaining about Washington's failures with no specifics about how your state screwed up. (Well, the liquor board was mentioned and that was obviously no surprise.)

#2 there are more than 3 adult use pot stores in Seattle. I think the number is more like 9. Opening more stores won't make any difference. The demand is just not there because there is to much illegal weed flooding the marketplace both in the "medical" shops and via the delivery services. -ike

I cannot walk to a store, I have to drive 20+ minutes to a part of town I never go to. Is there even weed soda yet? Concentrates? Edibles? I heard those weren't happening so I haven't even been bothered to look, but mostly I haven't been bothered to look because there's no pot store on any commute I do through the city. I could walk 2-5 blocks down the road and get just about any marijuana product I want while breaking the law, I have to drive out of my way just to possibly only get something I don't want legally. This system has a stupid low number of stores. That's why people aren't shopping in them.

@5: Fnarf, thank you for coming back this week. I love your posts like this one.

@5,

siting of stores

The feds have made it clear that they're not going to meddle with legal weed as long as citing guidelines are followed (not close to schools, day cares, yadda yadda). If we don't want to get spanked by the feds, we'd do well to not lift those requirements.

@12,

Uncle Ike's has edibles on their menu. I don't know how often they're actually in stock.

@15 Everything that is on the menu is in stock. We usually update the menu twice a day. -Ike

People still buy dope?

Just grown your own, and share with others.

More stores.

Just allow every medical MJ store to convert to retail if they want to.

@ 2 @11 SeattleIan

I have to agree with Ian. With 330+ unregulated medical marijuana stores, Seattle is completely saturated
with marijuana. Seattle was already saturated with marijauan even before I-502.
I would suggest allowing I-502 retail stores to allow delivery services, but that's long, long time away.

@9Meinart
Some folks have to remember, Seattle != All of Washington state. Outside of Seattle area, most of the state
do not want a flood of stores everywhere, if you haven't notice the bans and moratoriums.
Baby steps before giant leaps should be the mentality. Also, Kohl-Welles bill is a DOA since the
GOP control the senate and Senator Ann Rivers (R) and Sen. Brian Hatfield (D) will write the bill.
Although we like to believe our poop don't stink here in Seattle, Seattle does not control the state legislature.

Personal aside, if this is the Dave Meinart of the bar and restaurant world: You should really do a
quality control and reality check of your product from NW Torch which you are an investor.
Just because you grow pot doesn't mean it will sell well. The strongest kung-fu, blinging product will
survive the glut, which in my opionion is not yours. Look at Avitas for a good product for indoor
and Life Gardens for a good greenhouse hybrid in the I-502 world. Many good examples in the
medical world.

Rain City Cannabis is open to those 21+ 11537 Rainier Ave South. www.raincitycannabis.com

RAIN CITY CANNABIS NOW OPEN 21+. 11537 RAINIER AVE SOUTH SEATTLE'S NEWEST RECREATIONAL CANNABIS STORE. WWW.RAINCITYCANNABIS.COM

The current market status of too much inventory was caused by precisely the same characteristic that caused the initial market status of too little inventory... licensure cadence. And THAT is 100% the WSLCB's fault. From 10/22/14: http://flip-side.us/2014/10/22/wslcb-att…

Many areas of the state are only served by "medical" shops and illegal sellers, and many of the black market sellers get their stuff from the "medical" stores. Until marijuana shops become as common as 7-11's, many people outside the Seattle area will have to rely on medical shops or their local dealer, thanks to all the bans and moratoriums.

One of the big problems with the recreational stores is that they are not allowed to mention a medical use for their weed, and I suppose that includes topicals. Topicals are the cats meow for arthritis and joint pain and I'd hate to see them disappear under a completely recreational system.

You put the liquor control board in charge of a industry that directly competes with LIQUOR SALES and you wonder why they are purposely sabotaging a new industry.

Google Carl Rubicam Douchebag FUSTRANGER

All these awesome medical MJ shops, and I can't buy from any of them, even though weed is legal. Our state is just dumb, dumb, dumb.

Note the absence of a legal delivery service, even though for awhile Winterlife demonstated how successful this approach could be. Some corrupt politicians are probably raking it in from the black market.

If you look online you will see that the average cost per gram is still well over $20 for recreational stores. It costs between 5-15 dollars an ounce to produce, that's a huge gap. I suggest if you don't want to be price gouged to grow your own if possible. honestly I don't see any prosecutor in the state wasting court time over a few plants.

“I don’t know that we’re responsible for telling people how to run their business, ..."

*facepalm*

This is a no brainer 'duh' type story. I, and most other people, saw this coming long before legalization was actually passed. Marijuana is one of the easiest plants to grow. Every stoner and part time user is going to grow their own. Why go to a store and pay over the top prices plus TAX when you can have your own little pot patch in your back yard and have enough left over for your friends?

That's what happens when you (illegally?) triple tax a harmless substance ( a veritable de facto sin tax!): now your homewoman Jeanne Kohl-Welles introduced a foolish and arguably illegal bill - SB 5020 - that would eliminate medicinal-cannabis dispensaries via the merger with the hypocritical recreational outlets: call your state reps and senator and demand they vote against that foolish bill: do you go to a bar to get your Viagra? Ritalin? Codeine? Pfft!!! --- http://www.sensiblewashington.org & http://www.leg.wa.gov .