CNBC: Marijuana’s black market is undercutting legal businesses
- Legal weed markets across the country are struggling to compete with nontaxed, illicit businesses, where consumers get better deals, despite potential health risks.
- In New York City, crackdowns are beginning to contain the “tens of thousands” illicit businesses contending with the state’s newly launched legal market.
- Cannabis company executives are sounding the alarm, especially as critical federal banking reform stalls in Congress.
Thriving, unregulated marijuana businesses across the United States are undercutting legal markets awaiting banking and tax reform.
While it’s an issue in states like Colorado, Michigan and Washington, it’s a much bigger problem in New York. Unlicensed businesses are “taking a pretty hefty percent of the potential market share,” according to Amanda Reiman, a researcher at cannabis intelligence company New Frontier Data. None of the 36 newly licensed dispensaries in New York have even started operating yet.
The licensing program in New York is years behind the state’s sophisticated black market. New York doled out its first set of dispensary licenses last month, but recreational marijuana has been legal in the state for nearly two years.
READ MORE: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/23/marijuana-black-market-undercuts-legal-business.html