In the
blistering heat of the Coachella desert, armed security guards ensure there are
no unwanted visitors at a gated industrial complex.
The smell is
a giveaway before you step inside the nondescript buildings.
With dozens
of fans whirring, and under bright lights, Lars Havens shows us thousands of
cannabis plants being cultivated by his company, Del-Gro.
Most of the
seven-acre (2.8ha) site is still being developed but several rooms are already
operational.
Lars has been
a nurse, a professional rugby player, mixed martial arts fighter, and a bar
manager.
Now he's
hoping to capitalise on the world's biggest legal marijuana industry.The total
economic output from America's legal cannabis, worth $16bn (£12bn) last year,
is forecast to grow 150% to $40bn by 2021, according to BDS Analytics and
Arcview Market Research.
Last year,
Aspen, Colorado, became the first US city to sell more marijuana than alcohol.
'Most taxed'
"I moved
out here to California to put forward a product that connoisseurs are going to
be interested in," says Lars. "I want to produce the world's best
cannabis."
His product
will have to be good, because legal producers will never be able to beat
California's illegal dealers on price.Lars claims cannabis is the "most
heavily taxed product" in the whole state, taxed at close to 40% when all
the various levies are taken into account, and that this might be
unsustainable.
"I think
you'll start to see some deregulation on taxes, because right now they're
almost pricing themselves out of the market."
California's
new laws also made it illegal to export the drug out of state, raising concerns
about overproduction.
This has been
a major problem in Oregon, where there's simply too much cannabis, and farmers
have seen prices drop by 50%.
It shows the
difficulty and unpredictability of creating a legal market for something which
is already available on the black market.
'Mainstream
America'
Three hours
west of Coachella, the cannabis retailer MedMen has already opened five stores
in and around Los Angeles.
It's as far
from the stereotypical "head shop" as you can imagine, and has
clearly been designed to replicate the Apple Store experience.Teams of staff in
matching T-shirts help customers browse product information on tablets, with
edible cannabis products, oils, and creams on sale alongside the more
recognisable "flower".
Daniel Yi
from MedMen says it's hard to describe a typical customer: "Who's a
typical chair buyer, or a typical soda buyer? they reflect mainstream America.
"We're
at that point where it is normal to walk into a store like this, which looks
like any other store.
"There
are some people who were OK with buying cannabis from a corner drug dealer.
There are other people who would never have done anything illegal," he
says.
"If you
come up with a new app or a new car, you may have to convince people they need
this product. With cannabis there's already $50bn consumed in the US alone, and
almost 90% of that is in the illegal market," says Daniel.
"So part
of this is bringing those people into a safe legal market where they know where
the product is coming from."
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