The email went out to legal cannabis growers around Washington state. Another of their colleagues had gone under. 'Liquidation sale,' it said. Attached was a spreadsheet of items for sale: LED grow lights for $500 apiece. Rotary evaporators for hash oil, $10,000.
Across the Columbia River in Oregon, where the state's top marijuana regulator recently warned of an 'existential crisis' in the industry, it's an open secret some licensed growers have funneled product to the out-of-state black market just to stay afloat.
California's 'Apple store of weed,' MedMen, is teetering with millions in unpaid bills, while the Canadian cannabis company Curaleaf has shuttered cultivation operations in California, Oregon, and Colorado.
Along the West Coast, producers face what many call the failed economics of legal pot. There is a vast supply, thanks to great growing conditions and a wealth of expertise, but any surplus remains trapped within each state's borders due to the federal ban on marijuana. Prices have plunged, and producers have struggled.
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