How Chinese Organized Crime Is Dominating America's Illegal Marijuana Market | Hacker News Reader

How Chinese Organized Crime Is Dominating America's Illegal Marijuana Market

propublica.org

22 pointstomohawk7 comments

It would be really fascinating to see a map of the progress of legalization and the changes in crime in the state in which it was legalized and surrounding states which aren't.

This is a riveting article.

Oklahoma's case is different from other states that legalized weed though.

There is almost no background checking on residency requirements, and regulations are extremely lax in their Marijuana industries compared to other states where it is legalized.

All you need to do is pay $2k to a severely understaffed state agency, do some basic paperwork, and get the license to start an industrial grow

Right but if it's as legal as garden tomatoes, how does lead to an environment of black market crime? If Walmart was selling weed and big ag was growing it, and Visa/Mastercard allowed weed transactions...where would the crime come from?

AFAICT - If Walmart isn't selling marijuana products, then it's not actually legalized yet. And that's where the crime comes from.

There’s still a lot of money to be made in the illicit cross-state weed trade. As long as weed isn’t federally legal, organised crime will use legal states as a springboard for their illicit operations in other states

That said, the wholesale profits for black market marijuana are insanely low right now. I'm seeing $300/lb for decent-enough outdoor grown strains. Places like Oklahoma allowing lots of low-regulation grow ops really could lead to commoditization of the product to the point where a lot of the weed is eventually sold near the marginal cost of production. This might in the future dissuade cartel/mafia/triad-style activity after those groups take the time to realize there's no money left in the game.

Psychedelic mushrooms (at wholesale, per pound pricing) are currently being sold for less than $1/g -- there's an incredible oversupply of that product nationally.

> This might in the future dissuade cartel/mafia/triad-style activity

Not really.

Overproduction incentivizes consolidation, but it is difficult for legitimate businesses at scale to enter the Marijuana industry due to Federal regulations around banking and the drug trade.

This leaves organized crime as the only player with the capital needed to execute a consolidation driven business model.

There were similar dynamics in waste management before WM Inc was founded in the 1980s as well

> it's as legal as garden tomatoes

It's not legal at the federal level.

Marijuana is a commodity/cash crop like any other, making it perfect for large scale grows like tobacco.

The issue is you have to play in a black market because banks will not give loans under the fear of sanctions as Marijauna is still a classified drug in the US federally.

The only organizations with a large amount of black money are gangs

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