Authorities in California have seized some $30 million in illicit marijuana products in the year and a half since retail sales of pot became legal as part of an effort by the state to tamp down on a flourishing underground cannabis market.
Despite legalizing the sale and possession of marijuana for recreational use, the Golden State is home to thousands of unlicensed retailers, frustrating rule-following dispensaries and denying the state and localities of tax dollars.
And it's not just California. Illicit marijuana markets continue to operate – and are even boosted – in states where adult-use cannabis is legal. An analysis from BDS Analytics, a Colorado-based cannabis industry research firm, estimated that 78% of all marijuana sold in California in 2018 was illicit, as was nearly 90% of the weed sold last year in Massachusetts. More than half of marijuana sales in Oregon and Washington were illegal last year.