On September 30. I had a chance to hear findings of the work of Dennis Max Smelien on strategies and marketing in the illegal market, specifically focused on Oslo’s cannabis market. Findings of Dennis research, which was conducted through 10 deep interviews with those who sell cannabis, are intriguing at very least.
Currently more than 30% of people living in Norway in the age between 16-64 consumed at least once cannabis in their life. There is a big market for it. As you know, cannabis is illegal in Norway, thus distributing and selling cannabis falls under the illegal, and thus unregulated market. Being an illegal market, it has very distinguishing characteristics that are in a stark contrast to legal markets. Lets dive into some of them:
- The market defines and operates under its own rules. It is self-regulated, it does not need N+1 public authority to regulate it. It is very efficient.
- Customers can return the product if they are not happy with it and get money back.
- There is an age limit, so dealers do not sell cannabis to everyone.
- There is strong respect towards clients.
- Price is pretty much fixed, thus there are no price hikes. In the last 15 years it only raised from 100 to todays 150 NOK/gram. Everyone selling it must respect it, otherwise they face sanctions which often are violent.
- The product must be of as high quality as possible given the price
- Dealer must be service oriented and accessible to the clients (minimum availability 95% of time)
- Dealers are purposely fixing and not expanding the size of the market. They have pretty much fixed number of clients and how much product they sell. This is their risk management strategy, i.e. balance between growing business and reducing risks (e.g. of being arrested)
- Customer privacy is the corner-stone of business
Now if we compare this market to legal markets, for example tech industry, we can see there are massive differences.
First of all, customers can always expect to have the product of an expected if not highest possible quality. On the opposite side we see with the tech industry. Over the years their products and services are getting worst and worst, while price is going up and up and up. They are a prime example of enshittification, a process in which products and services decline in quality over time for sake of financial gains.
Every ‘job’ in the cannabis market adds value. There are no positions which role is to put things on top of other things as marvellously depicted in the Monty Python sketch. We see the opposite in the tech industry. There is an ever-growing number of various managerial positions (aka bullshit jobs) which add abs no value, quite the opposite, they dilute and reduce it to meaningless.
Customers have access to the people who provide them the product almost anytime. The tech industry offers us useless AI chatbots and the declining availability and stability of services.
The illegal market “cares” for it customers, while the tech industry squeezes every dime out of them (e.g. how Microsoft is squeezing every NOK from the entire public sector in Norway).
The customer privacy is guaranteed. There are no leaks of personal data. No data is used to extract additional value. We are all too well aware that tech industry does not give a damn about our privacy and it is using us to target us with ads (see my previous post).
The illegal market does not want to grow business beyond the manageable size, while the tech industry promises an infinite growth to its shareholders (on expense of economical stability, while plundering natural resources, destroying the planet and dehumanising workers).
The illegal cannabis market of Oslo is far more sustainable and eco-friendly than most, if not entire, legal markets.
Isn’t this shocking?
Disclaimer:
I do not advise, recommend, endorse, or encourage the use of illegal or controlled substances, such as cannabis. Any information provided in this post is for general informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as encouragement or instruction to use such substances and/or partake in the illegal market.
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