August 08, 2025|Press
Illicit Market Strangling California Cannabis Business Owners
By: Krystina Skibo
Cannabis business owners told LAist they struggle to pay high taxes and fees while they watch illegal operations go unchecked. They say when they’ve tried to talk to city officials, they’ve been stonewalled and shut out.
“The cannabis market in California has been distressed for a while and it’s not getting any better,” says Oren Bitan, litigation partner at Buchalter. “It’s a confluence of a few different things: a proliferation of the illicit market where unlicensed players are in business and not getting shut down, the licensed businesses have to compete and are losing business share, and the prices in California have also plummeted over the last few years.”
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