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

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!"