Yo, peeps! Check it out. There’s this town in Colorado that’s become a straight-up cannabis ghost town. It’s called Ordway, and it used to be poppin’ with all these cannabis grow operations, but now it’s like a deserted wasteland. Thomas Mitchell from Westword put us on to this crazy story.
You know how back in the day, during the California Gold Rush, there were these boomtowns that sprouted up everywhere? People were goin’ crazy lookin’ for gold and shit. Well, the same thing happened in Colorado. There was this town called Cripple Creek that had over 55,000 people searchin’ for gold. But once all the gold was gone, people dipped and left behind a ghost town.
Fast forward to today, and we got a new kind of boomtown: cannabis. Ordway was one of these boomtowns not too long ago. It’s a small-ass town with around 1,000 people, located about 50 miles east of Pueblo in Crowley County. At its peak, Ordway had 56 active growing facilities. That’s a lot for such a tiny town! And by the end of 2022, there were around seventy grow operations registered with the state Marijuana Enforcement Division.
But now? Shit’s different. Most of those grow operations couldn’t survive past 2023. From December 2022 to December 2023, there was a 30% drop in adult-use cannabis grow operations in the whole state of Colorado. And dispensaries ain’t making as much money since the pandemic restrictions got lifted.
One local grower named Bubba’s Kush Cultivation is feelin’ the struggle. This small batch craft cultivator is based in Ordway, and they’re worried about the future of growin’ in this ghost town. They see abandoned equipment and dried-up crops all over the place. Ain’t nobody stealin’ that shit ’cause there’s barely anyone left in Ordway. And even if they wanted to sell their grow operation, ain’t nobody buyin’ that for a million dollars. Good luck with that, fam!
So why did all these grow operations fail? Well, it turns out that the cannabis industry ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. They were promised endless profits, but that’s not what happened. The price of wholesale cannabis in Colorado dropped like crazy. According to the state Department of Revenue, prices fell over 56% on average since Bubba Kush’s first harvest in 2021. That’s a huge decline, my dudes.
This decline in the cannabis industry ain’t just happenin’ in Ordway. The whole state of Colorado is feelin’ it. Sales of both medical and recreational cannabis have been droppin’ like flies. In June 2022, sales were way down compared to the previous year. Medical cannabis sales went from $34 million to $19 million, and recreational pot sales went from $152 million to $127 million. It’s a downward trend, my friends.
And it’s not just a temporary thing. In November 2023, adult-use and medical cannabis sales hit an all-time low since February 2017. November marked the fourth consecutive month of declining sales in Colorado’s cannabis market. It looks like the state is headed for its second year in a row with major declines in pot sales.
All these declines have left towns like Ordway lookin’ like ghost towns with empty grow facilities. It’s a sad sight to see, my peeps.
So there you have it. The green rush done turned Ordway into a ghost town. The cannabis industry ain’t as lucrative as people thought it would be. It’s a tough scene out there, and it ain’t gettin’ any easier. So if you’re thinkin’ about jumpin’ into the cannabis industry, be wary. It’s not all fun and games. It’s a grind, and you gotta be prepared for some major changes.
That’s all I got for ya today, fam. Stay safe out there and keep on hustlin’. Peace!