At 4 p.m. this afternoon, President Trump is expected to gather the press in the White House’s Rose Garden to formally unveil his tariffs plan on what he’s dubbed, for some reason, “Liberation Day.”
Looming over the economy for months—sending stock portfolios and the financial solvency of families across the country into a tailspin with every mention—the wholesale tax on imported goods from Canada and China has already impacted the day-to-day lives of most Americans. But it seems the tariffs may soon be felt in the sectors of our lives that would otherwise distract us from the unending rise of prices on groceries, construction hardware, and foreign vehicles.
Even though cannabis legally sold in the city’s dispensaries is grown in-state, consumers of legal weed in NYC may soon be feeling the hit in a new—and objectively less pleasurable—way. According to a recent report from the New York Times, the 20% tariff on Chinese goods—stacked onto an already steep 25% tax on imported agricultural supplies like fertilizer—is ballooning the cost of cannabis cultivation and packaging. “We’re going into the season knowing that we are going to lose money,” said Florist Farms co-founder Karli Hornick-Miller, who grows both cannabis and vegetables on her Cortland, NY farm.
Growers are bracing for a loss not because the tariffs are skyrocketing the cost of the plant itself, but for their impact on the price of compost used for fertilizer, the small tins used for packaging pre-rolls and edibles, and the large domes used to shelter the outdoor crops from drastic shifts in the weather. And if you prefer your flower in the form of vapes or concentrates, the tariffs may be hitting you harder than others. The cost of the components used to make those sleek little pens has increased by 22% over the last year, according to Nicolas Guarino, the co-founder of Jaunty, the state’s best-selling vape.
All of which is to say: it’s just a matter of time before those cost hikes get puff, puff, passed on down.
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