The Dialogue: What Readers Had to Say About Oregon’s Cannabis Surplus

“Send it to me in Texas!”

(Henry Cromett)
By WW Staff

Last week, WW wrote about Oregon's cannabis dilemma. The state grew roughly three times as much weed as customers consume in a year ("Too Much Weed," WW, April 18, 2018). The surplus has caused farms to shutter and forced retailers to sell bud for a fraction of what they did three years ago, when cannabis was first legalized recreationally. Here's what readers had to say about the state's marijuana bonanza:

Stephanie Crabb, via Facebook: "Everyone please do your part to alleviate this surplus. It's the least we can do."

Jared Keller, via Twitter: "This is why I'm leaving New York."

Dream, via wweek.com: "Dispensaries are like Starbucks. They're everywhere. Actually, more like 7-Eleven since those are franchises."

Deviantioner, via Reddit: "This is one of the reasons I recently quit working in the industry after two years in it. Wages are capped or going down, and workers are being screwed and treated like crap."

Well_duh, via Reddit: "That's just basic supply and demand there. My guess is a lot of these dispensary owners are just more pot growers than actual businessmen."

Aleph_NULL, via Reddit: "If you can grow tomatoes you can grow weed. And Oregon has an almost perfect climate."

MatheasMichaels, in response: "No, it's not easy to grow well while keeping your overhead low enough to make a good profit. It's a hard job."

Kooosh, via wweek.com: "Even at $4 a gram, it's still 2,000 times more expensive than a banana. Cannabis should be cheap. It's not called weed for nothing."

Jay Gaddy, via Facebook: "Sorry if all those corner-store dispensaries are losing money, but getting into this game was a huge risk, and y'all should have known that from day one."

Billy Anderson, via Facebook: "It's a business. Just like liquor stores, bars, taco shops or strip clubs. The market rights itself like all businesses."

Mike Johnson, via Facebook: "Sell it to California, since they're sending us their hipsters."

Tamara J Brown, via Facebook: "Freeze dry it for future years when there's a bad season."

Alice Edwards, via Facebook: "Send it to me in Texas!"

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