Social networks tackle marijuana delivery

This issue of Forbes has a fascinating article on how marijuana sales rings are run and how they elude detection and prosecution. The article is very interesting from a social network perspective.

One stat I found quite amazing is:

Most of the marijuana was grown in dozens of private homes across the metropolitan area (including Connecticut and New Jersey), primarily in basements. A typical grower would cultivate 300 to 400 plants, which were harvested up to four times a year, yielding 30 to 40 pounds at each cut, worth $150,000 to $200,000 wholesale.

Wow. I'm not sure how much room 300 marijuana plants … but if you could fit that in your basement and clear $150k/quarter (tax free), that's serious cash. Even if it is only 20% of that, it is still over $100k/year tax free … all for just gardening. (though I imagine the start-up costs (the seeds, special soil, artificial lights, etc.) might be relatively expensive.

I haven't ever seen the show Weeds -- is this what it is about?

My question, if it is really this easy to make over $100k/year tax-free and part-time, why don’t more people do it?

One could argue that it is a testament to our society that people respect the law.

Fascinating…

Comments

[BTS]

Auren

Weeds is a show that explains exactly why maybe people don't in a rather humourus way. It is all fun and games, until there is a distribution war. Then people are getting shot at and such..

Wait a minute, is that Youtube versus Viacom thing about the same issue ?

[Anon]

The reason why more people don't do it is twofold:

1. The risk is high. If you are caught you'll be charged with a felony.

2. It's hard work. The effort to distribute is not trivial. The casual user will buy at most an ounce at a time ($300-$400 worth). There are 16 ounces in a pound. In order to get rid of one cut you would need to sell an ounce to 640 different people..good luck. Maybe you'll meet someone who is "big time" into selling and buys 10 lbs at a time. That's still 4 shady people who you would have to deal with to get it done. You think it's hard selling your mountain bike on craigslist? Try getting rid of 40 lbs of homegrown in a suburban neighborhood.

[Joe]

^^ to the guy above..

He said sell WHOLESALE. Not selling by the ounce. I know people here in NYC who pick up 20 pound packages monthly, so what you taking about?