EugeneOregon
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Oregon is interested only in money. The attempt here is to ban all extraction not for safety but for revenue colection from the big boys who have the money and resources for the permits, equipment and all required by the state. If you notice even mechanical is banned. You can light up ethanol on your baked Alaska dessert or other Flambeau dish but you can't extract your own RSO.
I too read all the laws and attempt to keep it all legal but it is really difficult in Oregon. Regardless of the laws people here still blow themselves up regularly anyway, but again it isn't about safety it's about the expansion and revenue of government.
The price is depressed all around because of the production surplus. It is still significantly cheaper to grow and supply without meeting all the OMMP requirements and paying the taxes, just not as profitable as it once was.Graywolf,
Everything you said makes sense except one thing I wonder about, the price seems very depressed in OR so how can the black market prices being high enough to motivate people to go that direction? For a while it had dropped to $100/oz for street weed. Recently though I saw that number trending up towards about $130.
Yeah the OMMP registration fees, new limits and tracking system (if you are not growing just for your own med card but have one other person) is really oppressive. People cant afford to grow for more than themselves in general because of the CTS (cannabis tracking system) requirements (label machine and software etc.). Seems like these changes might make it nearly impossible to find a grower for a card holder. Just the registration fees and my doctor bill makes me consider going to just 4 personal rec plants but if you do that you can only have 4 plants and cant even run a continuous cycle. I believe it is 4 plants max regardless of size.
Also, unless you are a master grower it can be hard to cycle 6 plants through often enough (with a good enough yield) to keep a person that uses a lot of RSO in medication.
Very frustrating. I follow the rules but it isn't easy.
Dee
History repeats itself again and again my friend.The price is depressed all around because of the production surplus. It is still significantly cheaper to grow and supply without meeting all the OMMP requirements and paying the taxes, just not as profitable as it once was.
History repeats itself again and again my friend.
Historically whenever a tax on ANYTHiNG exceeds about 10% then a thriving black market develops. Any value added tax above about 4% in any culture dating back centuries of recorded history has nearly always resulted in diminishing returns on the tax.
As the tax increases then so does the profit motive for those who accept the risk of legal consequences. For some the risk level is no factor when rent has to be paid, food has to be bought, and the kids need clothes - and the only jobs to be had on the open market pay enough that with two jobs and scrimping you can make it all work. There will always be those willing to accept legal risk for a better life and it becomes profitable when the government limits the cheap supply of goods by taxing those goods individually. For consumers the choice between an ounce for $100 or an ounce after taxes and extra expense for $180 is a pretty simple choice in a state were every 7/11 clerk seems to have a "friend" who needs some cash and the product is grown in every third house on the block....EASY to find and get because anyone can grow it lolz.
I believe in Oregon the value added tax is set at 25% BUT it is actually MUCH greater. This is because in order to comply with the tax requirements it takes significant expense in cost and labor. This cost itself once added in is taxed at that same 25%.
The only way to kill the black market is to kill the value added tax and dispense with the absurdity of tracking each individual plant! What lunacy! Imagine imposing that same idea on a drug known to kill MILLIONS - tobacco, and which is addictive but good golly somehow managed to stay off the Controlled Substances Act list..... The system is unworkable because the 10% of producers who want to stay legal will (because of the tax) never succeed long because customers nearly always select the better value for themselves and screw what society thinks (a core capitalist concept).
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