Hugged to death: https://web.archive.org/web/20230502143621/https://www.green...
Better takeaway is actually:
> For the first time in the U.S., adult-use cannabis tax revenue declined across legal states in 2022.
Better takeaway is actually:
> For the first time in the U.S., adult-use cannabis tax revenue declined across legal states in 2022.
The headline number is also a cumulative total since legalization started. The annual tax revenue is around $4 billion:
> According to a new report from the Marijuana Policy Project, cannabis sales tax generated a healthy $3.77 billion in 2022, but that was slightly below 2021’s tax revenue of $3.86 billion.
The article doesn't speculate why revenues are declining. I wonder why. Maybe past high revenues were an artifact of people staying home during COVID? Or is it a result of decreasing prices? I'm not a consumer, so I don't really know what's going on in the market.
The recreational sales in Missouri is being described as booming.
https://www.kcur.org/news/2023-03-05/legal-weed-missouri-rec...
It's weird how most of the discussion I hear about weed is how it just makes movies funny and you get hungry. But then most people I've talked to about it one-on-one don't have nearly as good of an experience, myself included. It makes me paranoid and depressed, and if I try watching a movie I can't remember what happened a scene ago so I can't follow the story. My passage of time gets screwed up, adding to the paranoia/fear, and I occasionally realize I'm clenching my jaw, and I've experienced jaw pain the next day from it. Not to mention how it saps all your energy/motivation. At least talking to your friend when you're drunk can lead to some funny conversations. Conversations/socialization between people who smoked weed is just nothing.
I know a number of people in the same boat as you who don't enjoy it and that's perfectly normal. Biochemistry is super complex and even well tested and regulated prescription drugs hit people differently.
I also think we grossly overstate how "universal" the high from alcohol is and as a society often overlook or blame problem drinkers rather than the substance itself. Alcohol intoxication can have wildly different impacts based on lots of factors. If you go to a bar and someone spends the night crying after getting drunk, no one goes, "well, par for the course alcohol is a depressant after all". We just chalk it up to a bad night. Personally, my experiences with alcohol overall are as negative as yours with THC.
There's also a ton of variance in between type of plants, delivery methods, concentrations, etc when starting with THC. You might be grabbing something off the shelf that's the equivalent of drinking 2/3 a bottle of cheap tequila for your first experiment.
>"At least talking to your friend when you're drunk can lead to some funny conversations. Conversations/socialization between people who smoked weed is just nothing."
This is a very individual experience which I don't think can be applied to everyone. I've listened to some pretty funny and interesting weed fueled conversations. I would much rather be the sober guy with some stoners than the sober guy with a bunch of drunk people. Like with any drug tho, there's often a line between happy and functional and wrecked.
At the end of the day tho, we can all choose which substance we want to partake in based on what we individual want or need. The danger is in using ones individual experience as the measuring bar for everyone else.
FWIW, high CBD, low THC if I am smoking flower and for edibles I know my limit is a measly 5mg, and I usually start at 2.5mg.
If you are seeking some general advice:
From my experience context is important. Alcohol is more technically a depressant given what we know of how the chemical interacts with the brain and most people greatly underestimate its depressive qualities, in part because culturally we've built a lot of contexts in which it is safe (for mental health at least) to drink and easier to engage with the fun sides of alcohol and avoid many (but not all) of the triggers/traps that lead to bad (mental health) outcomes.
THC from all the years it has been illegal has nowhere near as much shared cultural context. A lot of "best practices" have been quiet word-of-mouth things rather than background "everyone knows" "common sense". Legalized states are just now starting to find the sorts of contexts that work best for people and how to spread those not just as covert word-of-mouth but as overtly well documented best practices and built-safe environments. (And yeah, there's clearly a lot of bad first impressions which would lead to a noticeable "boom" cycle.)
I've found (because I can be prone to the paranoia myself), some of counter-balancing the paranoia/fear is about support structures. Use a buddy system if you need it. (I think even plush animals sometimes count.) Stick to places that are "safe" or "home" with lots of layers of trust built up already in your sober life. (I've found it is best to avoid liminal spaces like airports or train stations.) One of my fears is apparently that my heart feels like it is racing because of that weird sense of time passage, and wearing a fitness watch helps. I can check the metrics and see things are just fine, very quickly. Eventually you may find you can trust just wearing the watch and don't need to check much/at all.
> if I try watching a movie I can't remember what happened a scene ago so I can't follow the story
There are some old stereotypes about the sort of media that stoners enjoy, and many of them exist for this reason. Following the story of a movie or TV can be tough indeed. Things that don't need that sort of focus to recent past events where you can focus on "the endless feeling present" can be a blast though because every next scene feels like a wild surprise: nature documentaries, kids shows, absurdist comedies, events with lots of "spectacle" (fireworks shows, awards shows, magic shows).
> Conversations/socialization between people who smoked weed is just nothing.
Some of my best conversations have been with stoned friends (while I was sober). There's a stereotype of "stoner wisdom" and it comes from an interesting place. Drunk is often associated with "dumb" and "makes stupid decisions" in the way it plays with the brain and stoned has a "wisdom" to it. It's not always "smart", but it often makes surprise leaps and leads to real, interesting advice. (Some of the best advice in my life has come from stoned friends.)
The reason why is obvious to anyone who's attended a party in the last few years: weed isn't cool anymore. Partly by being illegal, it used to be cool, but now it's accessible to anyone. A lot of people had that realization when they heard "oh, I'm into weed now" from their uncool middle-aged uncle whose previous hobbies had included LARPing and painting miniatures. It's not even just about the legality though: smoking a joint is a hell of a lot cooler than sucking on a USB stick that smells like candy grapes, and vapes, being far more convenient, have now been tied to weed's image. Something being cool is far better marketing than any ad ever designed.
[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/QTAXT09QTAXCAT1USYES
[1] https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/dataportal/charts.htm?url=CannabisT...
WSJ had an article last week about California and NY screwing up legalization but some numbers from California:
$5.4 billion in licensed sales last year vs $8.1 billion in unlicensed sales. Licensed sales have 10% city cannabis tax, 15% state excise tax, and 9.5% state sales tax. With taxes, licensing, etc etc licensed weed is twice as expensive.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/marijuana-legalization-dispensa...
As another mentioned increasing costs in a questionable economy doesn't help either. I've personally experienced shrinkflation to the greatest extent of any consumer product in weed and weed accessories.