Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jan 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154

POT PRICE PLUMMETS AS STATE SURMOUNTS SHORTAGES

Shortages that plagued the start of Washington state's legal 
marijuana market have eased, sending prices in recreational-pot 
stores down as much as 40 percent.

Seattle's first pot shop, Cannabis City, ran out of marijuana in 
three days when it opened in July. Since then, the state has licensed 
more growers, processors and retailers, increasing supply and 
reducing prices to an average of $15 a gram, said Randy Simmons, 
deputy director of the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Prices 
were as much as $25 a gram in July, including taxes.

Even after the decline, that's still 50 percent more than the $10 
gram available on the black market, board officials said in an 
interview Tuesday in Seattle.

Challenges remain in the state's attempt to supplant illegal sellers. 
An effective tax rate of 44 percent on recreational pot is keeping 
many buyers in the still-unregulated market for medical marijuana, 
and officials say some applicants for store licenses have lacked 
financial backing or expertise.

"We had a lot of people seeing it as a gold mine," Simmons said. They 
underestimated such costs as rent and lab testing, he said.

Colorado and Washington became the first U.S. states to allow 
recreational sales last year, and voters in Alaska, Oregon and the 
District of Columbia have also passed legalization measures. Unlike 
Colorado, which used existing sellers of medical marijuana, 
Washington built its system from scratch.

So far, Washington has issued licenses for 97 of a planned 334 stores 
to serve 7 million residents. While the board plans to license 20 
stores in Seattle, the city already has as many as 300 unlicensed 
medical marijuana dispensaries, said Rick Garza, the liquor board's director.

Seattle's city attorney this week proposed closing illegal 
dispensaries and folding the medical market into the regulated system.

Washington has also gone more slowly than Colorado in the market for 
marijuana infused foods, after initially restricting so-called edibles.

The go-slow approach means that Washington's tax receipts haven't 
reached the bounty supporters promised when voters approved 
legalization in 2012. Through September, pot taxes had brought in 
$4.8 million. --- Bloomberg News
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom