Five years after cannabis was legalized in California, black market transactions like this one — where no one pays any taxes, and the product is not regulated — remain commonplace.'Legal shops are too expensive,' the 27-year-old tells AFP, as he lights up his preroll.Over the course of a year Buddakey estimates he saves the equivalent of a paycheck from his patient transport job by avoiding the state-sanctioned outlets.'I'd rather pay less for the same thing.
'They loaded it up with too many taxes, and too many regulations.'Indeed the rules around cannabis selling are complicated, and — like many things in California — are subject to separate, and sometimes overlapping, jurisdictions.Each city or county has the final say in whether to allow the sale of recreational cannabis on its turf. As a result, less than 40 percent of them have given the green light.