Oct 4, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
BDS Analytics has been bottoming out on California cannabis consumer preferences when it comes to retail choices. They processed more than 400 million legal cannabis transactions to reveal trends and patterns in marijuana consumption, and came up with some numbers of great interest to the industry.
The report tracks the personal data of three groups of people, regarding their attitude to the product:
- ‘Consumers’ have used cannabis in the previous six months
- ‘Acceptors’ would consider using cannabis but have not yet
- ‘Rejecters’ have no intention of ever using cannabis in future
Their report confirmed that cannabis consumers are ‘happy campers’, and claims to have debunked the ‘classic stoner stereotype for good’. Their average annual income is $93,800. Acceptors lag $21,000 behind, with rejecters earning an average $75,900 annually. However, they are not only valued workers. An impressive 64% of marijuana customers are in full-time employment, again significantly exceeding the 51% acceptors and 54% rejecters.
California cannabis consumers are better educated too. An impressive 20% have earned master’s degrees, while only 13% of acceptors and 12% of rejecters succeeded. They also exercise more, and are more satisfied with their lives. No wonder they are raising more families, and have a proportionately larger number of kids aged less than 10 years old. (more…)
Sep 13, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The Law of Demand states there is an inverse relationship between price and the size of the market. All things being equal, fewer people will purchase a product if the cost to them rises. The corresponding Law of Supply states suppliers will push more goods into the market the higher the price. Thus in the latter case the relationship is direct all things being the same.
Macroeconomics is a battleground on which buyers and sellers, largely unconsciously jostle the actual price in the direction that benefits them best. The jumbo Law of Supply and Demand holds that the price point will be where supply and demand curves intersect in an open market thus.
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Aug 18, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
Medical marijuana scored a major victory in the District Court for the Northern District of California this week. Judge Richard Gus Seeborg ordered federal prosecutors to pack their bags and stop hassling two law-abiding Humboldt County farmers. His reasoning was they were abiding by California laws, and cited two legal principles to substantiate his decision.
Were it not for these two principles, the Feds had a case as watertight as a good hookah ever was. Los Angeles Times reports they found ‘more than three hundred marijuana plants in a pair of greenhouses’ at Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore’s place five years ago. They also discovered ‘guns in a house on the sprawling property and about $225,000 in cash, much of it bundled in vacuum-sealed pouches, hidden in a garage and some pickup trucks’.
When they looked further, they found ‘another large stash of cash, along with bars of gold and silver’ so clearly they thought they had stumbled onto something big. Not true, Anthony Pisarski and Sonny Moore argued before the judge. We sold our palliative pot to legit collectives, and we abide with California law.
Judge Seeborg concurred with them. He ruled, “Their conduct strictly complied with all relevant conditions imposed by California law on the use, distribution, possession, and cultivation of medical marijuana.” In so doing, he relied on these two legal principles: (more…)
Jul 20, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The old English proverb “There’s Many a Slip ‘twixt the Cup and the Lip” alerts us to the fact we should not count our chickens before they hatch. Outcomes are never certain until they happen. Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to getting marijuana on the shelves of California, or so it seems.
Take Nevada, for example where casual cannabis came out the closet last month. The people queued out the door and down the streets according to LA Weekly. There was only one problem to mar their moment. Somebody in Carson City forgot to approve any distribution licenses.
Clearly, nobody was going to risk the Feds purloining their stuff. It took a whole two weeks before two emergency distribution licenses clicked in, and the product was back on the shelves. If we did the same with alcohol, we may as well reintroduce prohibition.
California is in an even bigger mess. Counties and cities can issue distribution licenses, but only within their jurisdictions. A load could leave San Bernardino County legally, but become contraband after it crossed over into Riverside. However, we are not even near that point yet. The MMJ Law specified independent distributors, while Proposition 64 allowed retailers to ship their own recreational product. (more…)
May 30, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The California Tax Service Centre applies sales tax to tangible items including antiques, clothing, furniture, giftware, and toys. However, it exempts certain products with a ‘social welfare flavor’ for example:
- Food stamp purchases
- Specified food products
- Specified medical devices
- Prescription medicines
Therefore, the Board of Equalization’s special notice to exempt qualifying sales of medical marijuana from sales tax was an unsurprising, yet welcome decision. We thought it an appropriate time to review the November 2016 regulations, as California’s medical marijuana industry moves steadily in the direction of becoming formal business.
This sales-tax concession only applies to medical cannabis, medical cannabis concentrate, and edible and topical medical cannabis products as described in section BPC 19300.5 of the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act. The purchaser must furthermore tender their valid Medical Marijuana Identification Card at the point of sale. (more…)
May 10, 2017 | Marijuana Legalization
The California State Board of Equalization has the task of serving the public ‘through fair, effective, and efficient tax administration.’ Its goal is to obtain sufficient income to match state expenditure. Closer to home, this includes ensuring that income from marijuana covers the cost of administering the program.
Details of the Mass Communication Rollout
The Board has embarked on a mass communication drive as part of its cannabis implementation policy. In so doing, it is making extensive use of social media. It encourages what it calls ‘CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing Stakeholders’ to visit its pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, You Tube, Linked In, RSS News Feed, and download its Mobile Apps.
The California State Board of Equalization confirmed its commitment to keep CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing Stakeholders up to date with latest information, in an email dated April 26, 2017. This addresses The Adult Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (Prop 64) itself, and compliance with the several tax laws covering cannabis cultivation, and sales of cannabis and related products in California. (more…)
