Year 1 a mixed bag for businesses in California’s pot market

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
December 30, 2018

-snip-

In a nation increasingly embracing legal cannabis, California stands out as the country’s biggest pot shop . Top-shelf marijuana, concentrates, balms and munchies are being produced and sold. Some companies are doing well, especially those with deep pockets that can handle the market’s twists and turns.

But many are not. And some, like Blatz’s company, already are casualties.

At year’s end, California’s effort to transform its longstanding illegal and medicinal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry remains a work in progress. It’s a mix of success stories, struggles and crashes.

The illegal market continues to flourish — by some estimates, up to 80 percent of the sales in the state still are under the table, snatching profits from legal storefronts.

With many communities banning marijuana sales, limiting the number of licenses or simply not creating rules for the legal market to operate, the supply chain is fragile, leaving some shops with sparsely stocked shelves. A battle over home deliveries of pot in communities that have banned marijuana businesses could end up in court.

-snip-