By Peninsula Daily News staff
and The Associated Press
SEATTLE — Washington’s legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed, with some stores periodically closed because they didn’t have pot to sell and high prices.
Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry.
A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from Eastern Washington last fall flooded the market.
“The prices are coming down so quickly that we can compete with the black market and medical sources,” said Greg Brotherton, who owns and operates Sea Change Cannabis in Discovery Bay, earlier this month.
When it opened in July, the store couldn’t stay open for more than a few hours before selling out, and deliveries were sparse.
That’s not the case anymore.
The shop is open every day, offering daily specials and selling grams for $10 each, tax included.
“The market is flooded right now,” Forrest Thompson, who owns Herbal Access in Port Hadlock, said in early January.
“There is a lot of crop from Eastern Washington that is driving our costs down.”
The cheapest gram in his retail store is $11 before taxes and more than $14 after taxes.
Some growers struggle
As prices start to come down in the state’s licensed pot shops, growers now are struggling to sell their marijuana.
Some are already worried about going belly-up, finding it tougher than expected to make a living in legal weed.
State data show that licensed growers had harvested 31,000 pounds of bud as of Thursday, but Washington’s relatively few legal pot shops have sold less than one-fifth of that.
Many of the state’s marijuana users have stuck with the untaxed or much-lesser-taxed pot they get from black market dealers or unregulated medical dispensaries — limiting how quickly product moves off the shelves of legal stores.
Surplus inventory
“Every grower I know has got surplus inventory, and they’re concerned about it,” said Scott Masengill, who has sold half of the 280 pounds he harvested from his pot farm in Central Washington.
“I don’t know anybody getting rich.”
Officials at the state Liquor Control Board, which regulates marijuana, aren’t terribly concerned.
So far, there are about 270 licensed growers in Washington — but only about 85 open stores to buy their products.
That’s partly due to a slow, difficult licensing process; retail applicants who haven’t been ready to open; and pot business bans in many cities and counties.
The board’s legal pot project manager, Randy Simmons, said he hopes about 100 more stores will open in the next few months, providing additional outlets for the weed that’s been harvested.
Washington is always likely to have a glut of marijuana after the outdoor crop comes in each fall, he suggested, as the outdoor growers typically harvest one big crop that they continue to sell throughout the year.
Simmons said he expects pot prices to keep fluctuating for the next year and a half: “It’s the volatility of a new marketplace.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant contributed to this report.
