How America Botched Cannabis Legalization | Forbes

The legal marijuana industry has seen its profits go up in smoke from overtaxation, overregulation and the federal government’s punitive prohibition on pot. Forbes reporter Will Yakowicz travels to the heart of cannabis country—Northern California’s Emerald Triangle—to talk with farmers, entrepreneurs, and other key players in the industry about how greed is killing legalized weed.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2022/08/02/how-america-botched-legalizing-cannabis-berner-cookies-kim-rivers-trulieve-steve-deangelo/?sh=4d7bcb044894

0:00 Introduction: Growing Cannabis At A Loss
1:25 Meet The Father Of The Legal Cannabis Industry, Steve DeAngelo
2:54 Licenses, Fundraising & Taxes: Why Growers Are Suffering At The Hands Of CA’s Gov’t
5:08 How Glass House Brands Plans To Inject 200,000 Pounds Of Product InTo The Market
7:43 Breaking Down The Cost Of Cannabis As Market Value Plummets
8:35 Is Going The Legal Route Worth The Pain?
9:55 Following The Money: Who Is Legalization Hurting Most?
11:36 “Cannabis Is A Small Business Industry…That’s What We Need To Focus On”
12:30 Without Equity, Where Do Small Businesses Go?
15:03 Why Most Of California’s Cannabis Supply Has No Place In The Legal Market
18:02 The Trials And Tribulations Inside The “Emerald Triangle”
19:50 The Perils Of Regulators Not Understanding The Cannabis Space
21:00 “There’s Nowhere To Export To”
22:10 The Fate Of The Legal Industry

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49 Comments

  1. Miguel Labrada on August 16, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    The solution is federal legalization.



  2. Sparkplug Recs. Official on August 16, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    a perfect picture to represent all things WRONG with the cannabis industry… Steve DeAngelo’s photo. lol



  3. Slim Hardaway543 on August 16, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    I would literally move out there from Texas to learn how to grow and gain experience in the grow world. I’m from Texas , i visit California often. I would love to learn tbh ❗️



  4. SlamFM on August 16, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    I could care less about the retail side of it and their problems. It’s not a hard or expensive plant to grow yourself if you really want/need it. A big problem is the 5 or 6 states that haven’t legalized it recreationally or medically yet. In NC they have to have a majority vote just to hear what the bill is about. A medical cannabis bill came up and it didn’t even win the vote to be heard out, so it’s dead in the water…again…until next year. What kind of dumbass house rule is that? Life changing laws trying to be passed and these cucks don’t even wanna know what it’s about.



  5. Howard Robinson on August 16, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    Amerika…go BIG…or go home. Big, big…fuckin big is how we go here, baby. And with the prospect of controlling large numbers of humans…well now….BIG, BIG…fuckin’…big.



  6. thelight on August 16, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    Can’t control people so they try to make money off it



  7. Constitution advocate on August 16, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    LGBT, brown, black is no different than any other small business. Deal with it. You are not special because of what you look like or who you lay with.



  8. John John on August 16, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    Grow the legal number of plants of different strains at home. You will have more than enough to consume and trade for other strains. The medical program in our state is a joke.



  9. The Incarnate Truth on August 16, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    They’re 16oz in a pound, if a pound of weed cost only $2-300 how are they losing out! Even black market that’s 500% profit, and we only tax profit, how do these companies lose money?! It’s all a scam! These same big "legal" growers are all known to flood the illicit supply, why? It’s not just skipping out on taxes, it begets monopoly friendly regulations down the road.



  10. Nombuso Dlamini on August 16, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    Could land ownership be a factor for increased bureaucracy and taxation? Perhaps the catch is that "hey its fine you can grow it but because you’re on our property, we will limit your participation" for some reason. The fact that this documentary mentions that production costs are lowered as you scale production, it might be that they do not want growers to get bigger than the State due to increased economies of scale and wealth creation plus value chain creation from increased innovation and patents. The potential is huge and they fear it in my view. The best thing is to increase innovation and technological use to challenge the legislation to win.



  11. Jim Flask on August 16, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    The government wants to pick winners. Corrupt politicians want their sons to be the only license allowed. Exploit the grey market for max profit for many decades. Politicians know just talking about the same issue can keep re-election campaigns going indefinately as long as they never fix the problem. A good politician creates a new problem that we didn’t have to run re-election campaign on fixing. Before 1933 the government had no authority to make any substance illegal. The people were in control of their health.



  12. Don McDonald on August 16, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    Plant your male plants outside their greenhouse 🤣



  13. thelight on August 16, 2023 at 6:59 pm

    Government is evil



  14. Steven Kembro on August 16, 2023 at 6:59 pm

    I was so interested by this video because I’m thinking about going to school for this sort of thing and opening a dispensary in my home town for help with some addiction recovery. There is a lot to take in as far as this is concerned. I can understand why a business would start with one thing, perfect it, then continue on with other gray area products, which seems an awful lot like the neighborhood shaman’s routine. I like it. I think I could enjoy honoring the botanist that helped settle this community. That may beg for more help….



  15. Jeff w. on August 16, 2023 at 7:01 pm

    I’m more happy that I can grow my own in NY. I’d never pay dispensary prices for pot,,, I’d rather buy it from Nick right down the way.



  16. Loreic Master on August 16, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    Bragging about gettig cost down to 100 a lb and complaining about profits?



  17. Doss Malone on August 16, 2023 at 7:04 pm

    Glasshouse produces mid-grade outdoor nonsense that the Old 215 clubs would have given away for free🤗🤗🤗 just putting that out there😁😁😁😬😬😬



  18. MVPCILO on August 16, 2023 at 7:04 pm

    THEY DIDNT BOTCH IT THEY MADE IT HOW THEY WANTED WHERE A FEW SURVIVED (their friends)



  19. Charlie Coleman on August 16, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    Supporting a business because it’s minority owned is 100% racism. That shouldn’t matter. Ever.



  20. Error Moose on August 16, 2023 at 7:06 pm

    These people keep talking about "generational wealth". The translation is, "I wanted to get filthy rich and realized I couldn’t when pot doesn’t sell for $3500/lb anymore." Good riddance.



  21. John Doe on August 16, 2023 at 7:08 pm

    16:56
    would someone explain to me how sungrown weed costs 300 dollars to produce?



  22. Fat Chili on August 16, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    Great vid but I had to laugh when Rose @21:01 and the title for this segment talks about ‘Exporting’, then rattles off US States….. Exporting is for goods or service being sold to another country. Must be the Blue Moon I’m smoking at the moment 🤣🤙



  23. LW1zFog on August 16, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    decriminalisation vs legalisation
    legislation is not law



  24. Romac on August 16, 2023 at 7:15 pm

    The only reason Forbes would make such a film is to express its regret that its friends didn’t profit enough.



  25. gani power on August 16, 2023 at 7:16 pm

    Marijuana is a plant given by GOD but if you smoke it , it could make your mind twisted upside down but if you will make oil out of it and apply it as medicine, it can even cure cancer….



  26. JOHN DAVIS on August 16, 2023 at 7:16 pm

    De-fund D. C.



  27. Jan Budin on August 16, 2023 at 7:17 pm

    Perfect example of the mean core nature of the free market. Rich people will have the wealth to support an industry that produces such a quantity at a low cost that can lower the selling price, while small farmers will fall in the seducing trap to become big, meanwhile struggling to pay the bills. And with no other choice, will go to the black market or die. The economic free market system is based on an alien to the planet predator mindset, that brings our society out of the harmony that allows on our planet to balance the life of all and everything. A very easy way out is to limit the amount of land a producer can have. It would be basically bring to a local scale the market and cut of the possibility to the big fish to eat the small fish. Anyway the problem looks unsolvable because the law makers are those that have more power when the solution would be to fragment that power and localise it… unless a new harmonizing force that we yet don’t know, takes over, Which is a wild hope in our times, but the only one that can be found using rational thinking.



  28. Charlie Coleman on August 16, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    Heh. So… You want us to care about small cannibas businesses because they’re owned by blacks, and lgbtq? Good luck with that. We don’t care if you’re a gay chinese/black mixed lesbian woman, folks just want their weed. Who cares what color people are or what they do in their bedroom. This is stupid.

    Also you shop at Target/Walmart/Amazon etc. And don’t support small business but you want the weed shops to stay small? That’s not a reality.



  29. Doss Malone on August 16, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    Taxes produced a billion dollars in one year didn’t mention that was a covid year did they🤔🤔🤔 where everybody was sitting at home collecting buttloads of unemployment with nothing to do fast track to the first two quarters of 2023 they’ve only collected 200 million and thats in every single operation in California 🤣🤣🤣 ever since they took away my actual medication I’ve been praying for the downfall of these shops with no soul or anything good to smoke🤣🤣🤣



  30. Mark Bauer on August 16, 2023 at 7:26 pm

    I couldn’t agree more. We needed to stop locking people up for pot. But that’s it. Legalization is was a mistake I regretfully voted for.



  31. Oz on August 16, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    Crying about big companies like dude start a llc and compete or get left behind



  32. Deep Cycle Garage on August 16, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    The best way to make so-called "black market" cannabis hyper-corrupt is to get the government and the most dangerous gang in the USA "police" involved!



  33. Peter Janke on August 16, 2023 at 7:30 pm

    Here in Canada it happened too. Governments break everything the try to regulate. $600 CAD per pound for GSC in 2022 and today it’s $1000



  34. Jan Budin on August 16, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    Until greed will be taught in schools, movies and social attitudes it’s going to be the driving force of the average human being. Which means the vast majority of people. It also means that the free market will be beneficial only to the market bullies that will abuse of their power in order to control it with the help of all the servants that "work" for them, while living in the illusion of being free.



  35. Wides911 on August 16, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    Es ist höchste Zeit für die Legalisierung von Cannabis in Deutschland 🇩🇪 🫵🫵🫵



  36. Dan Dillinger on August 16, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    10:50 boo hoo. Excuses. Catch up its always about the money.



  37. Troy Griffis on August 16, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    That’s not grade A that’s mulch



  38. John Doe on August 16, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    17:38
    SOo we should feel sorry for small business owners who dont put away money for down cycles?
    weed is no different than any other business especially when government gets in with their red tape
    did they think the boom was going to last a decade????



  39. Rey Stafford on August 16, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    It takes "COLONIZERS" to screw up something this easy to do… Grow a weed. I’m sick to death of colonizer gaslighting. Blacks and latinos were fine without them.



  40. Patrick Welby on August 16, 2023 at 7:39 pm

    government touches it… it will never have a chance



  41. Jimmy Jay on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    OverSaturation…



  42. Oh oi boi on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Non of these things gender skin type blood type gender type, legs and legless or otherwise have to due with success in business. You failed in business because you failed nothing else. stop making yourself the victim when your at the wheel driving everything as a business owner. if you stopped making excuses for yourself you’d learn to grow change improve and applying changes where needed succeed like a real business owner. Not a self victimized failure that cant except accountability for ones choices and decisions. You didn’t work because you didn’t work.



  43. Arrogant Neanderthal on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Gonna make some enemies here. Good. You tainted the industry when you went 1000% mark up. I don’t believe it should be profit oriented. I grow so I don’t have to buy or pay the dispensary VULTURES…



  44. Primo Victoria RN4L 🏴‍☠️ on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Marijuana and money should have nothing in common. Ima bring free weed to everyone like the gods intended. Don’t go chasin money yall



  45. Matthew on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Leftist botched the USA legalization.



  46. Patrick H Moore on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    #DontAUMAtheUSA Steve is a sad DPA stooge! Those fools in the CA 420 Community traided the nations best (R) MMJ bill for the worlds worst "Legalization" scheme and KNEW what they were doing! Soros pays well…



  47. Austin on August 16, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    LEGALIZE IT DUDE!!!!!



  48. Anthony Hairston on August 16, 2023 at 7:42 pm

    Raphael Mechoulam is often called the "father of cannabis research" because of his pioneering work. In 1963, he successfully isolated and elucidated the chemical structure of cannabidiol (CBD), one of the primary non-psychoactive compounds in the cannabis plant. A year later, in 1964, he and his research team were the first to isolate and synthesize delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound responsible for the "high" associated with marijuana consumption. He has the answers to all your questions https://youtu.be/5BGS5JzLlvs



  49. AKME-2,4,6-тринитротолуол on August 16, 2023 at 7:43 pm

    Being a Cannbis connoisseur for nearly 26 years but a fiscal conservative libertarian. I have always scratched my head when the "Leagalize It" crowd always said," Just regulate it and tax it!"
    Legalize it like tomatoes and oranges. Sure you have Delmonte and Libby’s but you also have farmers markets and your garden.