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Matt Ochoa is the owner of Jefferson Packing House, a cannabis business in Oregon.
AMANDA ALONZIK/NPR
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AMANDA ALONZIK/NPR
Matt Ochoa is the owner of Jefferson Packing House, a cannabis business in Oregon.
AMANDA ALONZIK/NPR
Oregon is a state of lush vegetation, overgrown weeds, and rife with chronic disease.
Jokes aside, this is a real problem for cannabis industry professionals like Matt Ocho. Ocho runs Jefferson Packinghouse in Medford, Oregon, which provides services such as drying, trimming and packaging to cannabis growers. He has seen tons of usable cannabis left in cannabis fields across Oregon. Ocho says it’s because there aren’t enough buyers.
Oregon has a population of just over 4 million, and farmers have grown 8.8 million pounds of hemp so far this year. That means there’s almost a pound of dried, smokable marijuana for every person in Oregon. As a result, the price at which legal marijuana is sold has dropped dramatically over the past few years.
Economics has a straightforward solution to Oregon’s marijuana surplus problem: trade! However, Oregon marijuana can only be sold in Oregon. No one in any state can legally sell marijuana across state lines because it remains illegal under federal law. On today’s show, we discuss how a product that is both legal and illegal creates some…thorny business problems.
This show is hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Sarah Gonzalez. It is produced by Dave Blanchard. It is designed by Maggie Luthar, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is the executive producer of Planet Money.
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