Marijuanapocalypse: On July 1st, tracking standards for California's cannabis market went into effect. This meant that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cannabis products became uncompliant by the new state laws.
To be fair though, the state of California gave dispensaries a six-month grace period to get their shops compliant, and those that dragged their feet on it have no one else to blame but themselves.
'Marijuanapocalypse'
The six-month transition was aimed at facilitating the market's transition to becoming more regulated. As licensing authorities reviewed applications before June 30th, businesses not compliant were given exemptions from specific regulatory provisions. Now, these exemptions do not exist.
With so much of the non-compliant product still on the dispensary shelves, many attempted to sell all the product they had before the deadline. The last week of June was known by many as 'marijuanapocalypse.'
Due to the fact that dispensaries unsuccessfully scrambled to get the product off of their shelves, they now must destroy a total of $350 million worth of cannabis products, according to High Times.
Non-compliant products have been rendered completely unusable, and it remains unknown what stores will do with the products. It was said that these dispensaries composted tens of thousands of pounds of flower and edibles. To stay compliant, they smashed oil bottles with hammers and documented them for the regulators.
New Laws
The new laws in place say that dispensaries cannot grow, pack, or label their own products. Many cannabis dispensaries did that to cut costs in their stores, as most dispensaries have sprung up recently since the recreational legalization was put in place on July 1st.
The $350 million mark is just an estimation, as it would be extremely difficult to gauge the exact amount of money lost. The new seed-to-dal tracking system is now in place, however, and the California cannabis market is up and coming.
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