Colorado's Legal Pot Industry Leading a Multinational Job Creation Boom...For Now

Colorado pot shop owner paying his taxes 

Colorado's, and soon Washington State's, new laws legalizing recreational pot are high on the list of multinational job creation efforts. For instance, as that unimpeachable source of marijuana information, Fox News, wrote the other day 'Colorado pot shops likely targets of Mexican Cartels' shows Mexico's motaleros might be heading north. And, of course, between the legal shops themselves, their suppliers, their security people and especially the pot tourism industry, Colorado's employment is booming.

Up here in Canuckistan, rumour has it, the hills are alive with the sound of young mules heading south through the mountains, backpacks loaded with BC Bud, heading for the parking lots and parks near Colorado's pot shops. Prices in Colorado are skyrocketing [for now] because there's so much demand from Coloradoans and tourists that the local growers can't even come close to meeting the demand [for now]. Consequently, BC Bud, who's price has fallen a bit over the years, is now a hot commodity for the legal Colorado [and soon Washington] markets [for now].

Another interesting angle is that the 'Banks Say No to Marijuana Money, Legal or Not' creating situations like in the picture above where legal pot shops are paying there bills and taxes with bags of cash. The more i read about this angle the more obvious it is that the banks, who'll do anything for a buck, aren't refusing the dough out of compliance with the law [why would they start now?], but because they know what i know, bust follows boom sooner rather than later.

Right now the pot growing industry in the US is geared to a 'market' whose supply side is restricted by pot's illegality. Right now, prices are high because the penalties for growing it discourage many folks from taking the gamble - the returns seldom equal the risk of loss. But the new laws say that every adult, pot smoker or not, can legally grow about 1.5 lbs in their backyard. Considering that almost everyone is in debt and can't afford college for their kids, imagine how many folks there are in Colorado and Washington St. already sprouting seeds.

Even if 50% of them smoke it themselves there will be so much weed on the market by next year prices will drop everywhere not just in the legalized states. By a year or two later prices will be tanking as they already are in Uruguay where Paraguayan growers have flooded the market. The plummeting prices will reverse the flow of mule jobs, these new ones will be heading north to BC and south to Mexico.

The cartels will be busy trying to finish off the border fence ASAP and the Canadians...well they'll at least be buying/smoking affordable pot for the first time in any decades. If the price of pot ends up at $1 a gram as i foresee, the legal pot shops won't be able to pay their rent or wages, they'll go out of business, they'll be bankrupted, not the scenario banks wanna see a-tall.

Of course boom follows bust too, so in a few years, when government tax revenues have already turned to dust and all those new growers will go back to growing basil and potatoes, legal and illegal supply ot pot will dwindle, prices will rise and the underground market will re-emerge from its hibernation. Round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows. In the meantime, spring is just around the corner and soon the hills in Colorado, Washington, BC and Mexico will be alive with the sound of folks whistling a happy tune [for now].