Marijuana is currently selling as cheaply as half-price in Oregon at the moment, because of a glut in supply.
According to official statistics, Oregon’s pot farmers have grown three times as much of the herb as the state’s smokers can inhale—there’s now more than a million pounds out there, unsold. And it’s not like farmers and retailers can look beyond state borders to find more customers. The ongoing federal ban on marijuana forbids that.
As a result, according to a Willamette Week report, standard grams of weed are selling at $4 rather than $8, and it now costs almost the same to buy a gram of the Girl Scout Cookies strain as it does to buy two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies.
The publication reports that family-run marijuana farms are selling out to investors from outside Oregon, due to the drop in the price. That means power in the local supply chain is concentrating.
Oregon’s climate is more conducive to growing weed outdoors than that in a state like Colorado, and the agency regulating the Oregon cannabis industry has found itself issuing way more licenses than it anticipated.
According to a Guardian report, many growers have been trying to have the high-making oils extracted from their produce, in order to make use of it before it goes stale. Those oils can be used to make edibles—but again, the products need someone to buy them, and federal law means they can’t cross state borders.
“This glut’s going to take a few years. There is really no short-term answer,” farmer Trey Willison told the Guardian.
