One of the questions dogging Washington’s creation of a legal marijuana market is how big the state should allow marijuana producers to get.
Should it require small farms of a few hundred plants to promote many small farms, or allow megafarms of tens of thousands of cannabis plants and risk a monopoly for growing?
Turns out there isn’t going to be a cut-and-dried answer from the Liquor Control Board in its rules for licensing growers.
“Presently, there is no limit on the size of growing operations,” said Mikhail Carpenter, a spokesman for the board. “The board has that ability and has not chosen at this time to set the size.”
So, someone could potentially get a license for a 50,000-acre megafarm?
“Well, first they would have to convince us they could secure it,” Carpenter said.
He explained that for now, the size and operations of growers will be limited by their ability to meet all the state’s requirements for funding, staffing, securing, etc. the grow operation.
Eventually set a limit?
Carpenter said there are no line items on the liquor board’s list of things to do for setting a limit now. However, the board’s marijuana advisor or “pot czar” said in a previous interview with us that using a cap on THC, something like a “carbon cap,” might be the answer.
“It’s no secret that I think the best way to regulate quantity is THC. If I were the czar instead of the mythical pot czar, I’d get rid of the tax and I’d set an annual quota on how much THC can be produced. I’d auction off the quota rights.
“It’s THC that has the intoxicating umph. It turns out to matter how much cannabidiol (CBD) is in there. So, I might want to have a different price for very high ratio strains because that’s where you get the risk of panic attacks and so on.
“But crudely speaking what people are buying is intoxication and the intoxicating agent is THC. And instead of encouraging people to pack as much THC as possible in every bud, we would like them to pack as much value as they can into each gram of THC. It’s the opposite problem. …
“Total THC – imagine that Washington state now uses a billion dollars worth of cannabis a year, which is a decent number. On average the stuff sells for $10 a gram at 10 percent THC (reasonable numbers) THC is $100 a gram. So, a billion divided by 100 is 10 million. So, we’re using 10 million grams a year of THC.
“Set that as the limit. Here we have licenses to produce 100,000 grams of THC each. And we’re going to take bids and sell them to the highest bidder.”
He says that’s the best approach since setting a crop size or a building size will have the unintended consequence of growers either packing as much THC in every bud as possible or stacking as many plants as possible in a building.
more info on Seattle regs
http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana...-limit-marijuana-farm-sizes-but-seattle-will/
Should it require small farms of a few hundred plants to promote many small farms, or allow megafarms of tens of thousands of cannabis plants and risk a monopoly for growing?
Turns out there isn’t going to be a cut-and-dried answer from the Liquor Control Board in its rules for licensing growers.
“Presently, there is no limit on the size of growing operations,” said Mikhail Carpenter, a spokesman for the board. “The board has that ability and has not chosen at this time to set the size.”
So, someone could potentially get a license for a 50,000-acre megafarm?
“Well, first they would have to convince us they could secure it,” Carpenter said.
He explained that for now, the size and operations of growers will be limited by their ability to meet all the state’s requirements for funding, staffing, securing, etc. the grow operation.
Eventually set a limit?
Carpenter said there are no line items on the liquor board’s list of things to do for setting a limit now. However, the board’s marijuana advisor or “pot czar” said in a previous interview with us that using a cap on THC, something like a “carbon cap,” might be the answer.
“It’s no secret that I think the best way to regulate quantity is THC. If I were the czar instead of the mythical pot czar, I’d get rid of the tax and I’d set an annual quota on how much THC can be produced. I’d auction off the quota rights.
“It’s THC that has the intoxicating umph. It turns out to matter how much cannabidiol (CBD) is in there. So, I might want to have a different price for very high ratio strains because that’s where you get the risk of panic attacks and so on.
“But crudely speaking what people are buying is intoxication and the intoxicating agent is THC. And instead of encouraging people to pack as much THC as possible in every bud, we would like them to pack as much value as they can into each gram of THC. It’s the opposite problem. …
“Total THC – imagine that Washington state now uses a billion dollars worth of cannabis a year, which is a decent number. On average the stuff sells for $10 a gram at 10 percent THC (reasonable numbers) THC is $100 a gram. So, a billion divided by 100 is 10 million. So, we’re using 10 million grams a year of THC.
“Set that as the limit. Here we have licenses to produce 100,000 grams of THC each. And we’re going to take bids and sell them to the highest bidder.”
He says that’s the best approach since setting a crop size or a building size will have the unintended consequence of growers either packing as much THC in every bud as possible or stacking as many plants as possible in a building.
more info on Seattle regs
http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana...-limit-marijuana-farm-sizes-but-seattle-will/
