Hey guys, it’s been a whole week since recreational cannabis sales started in Oregon and it’s off to a mighty big bang! I’ve been reading a couple articles this morning and wanted to summarize them into one! Please make sure you read both KGW’s and Sue’s pieces as they contain a lot more information than what I chose to mention.

In Oregon’s first week of sales they’ve raked in about $11 million. So far, Oregon is ahead two states who legalized recreational cannabis first: Colorado and Washington. In Colorado’s first week of rec sales they made about $5 million, and it took Washington a couple months to sell $2 million. In Washington’s defense, one of the biggest reason for low sales in it’s infancy was how bad the planning was by the LCB here in Washington, taxes were higher and product was WAY limited which caused a lot of shops to shut down because they had no product. According to this KGW article, when voters approved Measure 91, the state estimated $9 million in tax revenue for the first full year of 2017, seeing how much they’ve made in just 1 week, that’s bound to change.

So, with Oregon’s new market, how does that affect the market in Vancouver? Since I502’s passing (has it really been over a year!?), and Washington being the closest state that sells legal weed, the shops in Vancouver have relied on people shuffling in from Portland. Sue over at the Cannabis Daily Record caught up with some of the shop owners to find out if they’ve seen a dip in customers since Oct 1st. Stores like Main Street Marijuana saw foot traffic decrease by 10-20 percent, even after dropping some of their sales prices. The Herbery, which has two locations saw an 18 percent dip through the weekend at it’s main location and less than 10 percent at their second location. The Cannabis Country store saw a 15 percent dip on Friday and Saturday, while H.E.M.P. saw a decrease in business on Thursday, they were right back to normal Friday.

Sue got a great quote from Morgan Hutchinson, co-owner of H.E.M.P.

“We’re just trucking along, selling great weed to cool people.” 

This year I didn’t join in any of the first-day-of-sales festivities like I did in Washington, I was still burnt out from all the legalization parties back in July, and I had to work…BOO! It was nice to see all the pictures being shared on social media, and it’s nice that cannabis is being more accepted by a wider audience. I was a little worried about some medical dispensaries merging to also sell recreationally, but so far it hasn’t affected me as a cardholder. I showed up to Treehouse Collective on Monday and much to my surprise it wasn’t busy, in their defense it was 4pm. I checked in as a medical patient and while I was waiting to be checked in a younger couple was waiting for the rec side, after clear instructions from the front desk we each entered separate doors which led us into two different rooms, one for medical and one for rec. I’m still wondering about supply for rec customers and patients, like if a strain sells out like some did, how will that affect patients fond of that strain?

It will be interesting to see how things unfold, for now, Oregon’s weed sales are free of tax until January 2016, after that a 25% tax will be added onto legal cannabis sales. What about edibles and concentrates? Until the OLCC can get rules and regulations in order to navigate through this new market, consumers can only purchase plants or up to a quarter ounce from shops. Edibles and concentrates can only be purchased if you have a medical card, until then you’ll still have to head over to the shops in Vancouver. Sue’s article points out that a lot of shops are have beefed up their vape, edible, and concentrate lines.

If you’re new to cannabis and looking for which shops are selling cannabis on the rec side, here’s a helpful link, all you have to do is sort “yes” under the “select retail” drop down menu.

The post Oregon’s First Week Of Sales + How It’s Affected The Vancouver Market appeared first on Mrs. Nice Guy.