Unemployed Young Grads Weather Recession by Selling Weed

With the legalization of marijuana on the ballot in California right now, you'd think the biggest concern would be whether pot growing will head to factory farms if it passes the vote later this year. But regardless of how you feel about the chance for California residents to legalize cannabis and usher in the era of Big Pot, you may be surprised to know that small-scale "closet"-size growers, often young recent grads, have been using the loopholes in the medical marijuana system to keep their heads above water during the recession.

Salon reports that a number of recent grad school graduates have leaned on the marijuana market to make ends meet. Unable to find steady work despite their shiny new advanced degrees and impressive resumes, some 20-somethings have resorted to using rooms left vacant by former roommates as hothouses. Growing, drying and selling pot is tedious work, but the young men in the story — who all, perhaps obviously, are not identified by their real names — say that a thousand dollars profit each for several weeks of work is more than worth it when compared with minimum wage sandwich shop jobs. No one claims to get rich this way. One guy stated, "I'm just looking for this to help me pay rent, utilities, basic things like that." Another newly minted grad has a job but also has a small child at home and student loans piling up. He uses his pot profits to keep the credit card companies and student loan collectors at bay while he puts his wife through grad school.

After some supply purchases (plastic sheeting, lightbulbs) and the initial $100 payout for a medical marijuana prescription from a doctor, which enabled the team to buy ready-to-grow cuttings at an Oakland cannabis dispensary, there's very little overhead, so long as you don't mind the risk of selling on the black market. With the medical market flooded by larger growers, small-timers have to find business elsewhere. If Californians vote in favor of legalizing marijuana, their competition will be fierce enough to drive their prices down further, likely driving the smallest sellers out of business altogether.

While I'm certainly no pot advocate, legal or otherwise — I'm one of those straightedge snobs who says things like "I like my brain cells" — I've got to hand it to these guys. I'd be pretty terrified that the cops would bust me, even if marijuana is half-legal in California anyway, but stories like these go to show that economic downturn makes the best of us desperate. No reason to judge someone else for finding a way to get by until things improve for us all.

Photo credit: david_shankbone