“Met a Kelowna mortgage broker who said that many of her drug dealer clients are being foreclosed on.”

Posted on 24 March 2011 | 21 Comments

McLovin at vancouvercondo.info March 24th, 2011 at 9:12 am – “Met a Kelowna mortgage broker who said that many of her drug dealer clients are being foreclosed on. She said even the drug dealers in K-town are hurting. The strange thing is she thought this was funny because they were “DD’s” and “they deserved it”. What she didn’t find ironic was that she arranged their mortgages and obviously and willfully lied on their applications.”

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21 Responses to “Met a Kelowna mortgage broker who said that many of her drug dealer clients are being foreclosed on.”

  1. matt | 24 March 2011 at 1:31 pm | Reply

    I’m really curious. What’s changed in B.C.’s ‘harmless’ drug industry?

    • vreaa | 24 March 2011 at 1:44 pm | Reply

      Perhaps the change wasn’t directly in the drug industry, but primarily in Kelowna RE values (with ‘DD’s being forced to sell leveraged RE?).

  2. Nemesis | 24 March 2011 at 1:47 pm | Reply

    When the purveyors of stupefying herbs are having trouble off-loading their wares, you KNOW that discretionary spending has taken a hit…

    In that same vein I am reliably informed by an ultraPremium YVR WestSider (someone who enjoys an occasional, good ‘smoke’) that starting last autumn their local ‘merchants’ have resorted to bi-weekly telephone solicitation, special offers and free door-to-door delivery to juice the market…

    What next? Groupon???

    “A woman is just a woman. But a good cigar, now that’s a smoke.” – Rudyard Kipling

    • Michael | 24 March 2011 at 2:09 pm | Reply

      Well, I am not so sure they have necessarily selling issues, but I did hear *cough* that the price has gone down on the street quite a bit.

      It is possible though that they can’t ship as much to the States anymore as they used to, maybe more people are growing their own down there now? Especially considering that California is essentially allowing “Pot Superstores” with all the supplies and seeds you need.

  3. Shizzie von Shizwit | 24 March 2011 at 3:36 pm | Reply

    the export business to the US is miniscule. 95% plus of the weed sold in the us is cultivated in the US. Most of the rest comes from Mexico. BC boast of a $2b to $4b industry. in the US it is estimated at a $100b a year industry.

    In California, anyone can walk into a doctor’s office, claim they have insomnia, pay $150, and get a medical marijuana license.

    There is simply no need for the US to import from Canada.

    Like any product that has been commoditized, the price drops sharply with supply. Weed has never been cheaper and continues to get cheaper. the margins are very small for the actual producer, and in my opinion do not justify the risks. Yet every month there are more producers, but only so many people can consume it.

    25 years ago, a 1/4 oz of low grade jamaican or mexi-dirtweed was $70. now high grade bud is $50. (or at least that is what my friends tell me)

  4. whatever | 24 March 2011 at 5:15 pm | Reply

    I’ve heard from mid sized growers that ever since the olympics the price people can get for pot has dropped significantly. Can’t remember the details as to specifically why, but the drop in weed prices has been pretty significant.

    ??

  5. Ornamental Tepee Usury | 24 March 2011 at 5:38 pm | Reply

    it’s probably because the entire province is awash in do-nothing losers whose entire career plan is ‘make money make money’ ala rap videos they watched when they were 13.

    does any one else think it’s ironic that the only place in north america that seems to follow the key tenets of the fundamental laws of economics is the illicit drug market? why is that? no corrupt regulating institutes? no corrupt ratings agencies? limited access to cheap credit?

    these are rhetorical questions ..

    • matt | 24 March 2011 at 10:21 pm | Reply

      I’m laughing out loud Oranmental Tepee Usury! I’ve been saying the exact same thing for years. B.C. is full of fucking losers and it’s because there is nothing to do here if you’re a bright young UBC or SFU grad. Your only choice is to move somewhere with a real economy, where you can develop a career and you won’t have to fight with all the lifers and British expats.

      • Restaurant Unemployee | 24 March 2011 at 10:39 pm |

        matt,

        i knew there was no point in trying once i managed to get that 51% to pass photography 11 and secure my high school diploma. i saw that i hadn’t a hope in hell of attending a local university until i was a mature student anyhow, and what position could a person like myself do and not find some serious ethical flaw in it that would sap me of any desire to spend my days at? so i fit the bill of a total waster, but at least i’m not peddling crack.

        there is a book called ‘you can’t win’ that was written during the 30s that should be required reading for all high school students in BC – it would get us back to that essential Vonnegut truth “make no mistake, we are here to fuck around – nothing more” – it’s thinking anything different that causes problems in the world.

        all around my neighborhood are black tahoes on 22″ spinners, late 90s cadillacs on dubs, benz and beamers all being driven by dickheads with full sleeve tats and wrap around D&G shades and affliction shirts. they are the epitome of success for all the suburban pituitary retards, and when i’m king they’ll be first against the wall, with a cat dc-9 to push the earth over the mass grave. they are clever, not intelligent – they earn their money on a legal loophole – the prohibition of substances. take away the prohibition, the profits dry up, their numbers dwindle like ‘momentum investors’ in real estate – no one really wants to waste their time shaking down gambling addicts and dry cleaners and prostitutes. the big money is in drugs, and frankly the only two drugs that concern me vis a vis the greater good/people’s health are cocaine and it’s derivatives and of course, meth. if it grows in the ground it’s legal, imo.

        i’m sick of people’s pretensions and status seeking, i’ll find my own path and be happier for it. FTH (flip that house!)

      • Get Real | 24 March 2011 at 11:04 pm |

        Could not agree more….
        My favorite annoying moment of the day is the yuppie, do-nothing crowd in front of me at Starbucks when I am in a rush to grab my morning coffee on my way to work..
        Ordering some caramel..mochiatto BS (with soy, of course) then fiddling around with “starbucks” card or juggling change. Mac in hand, no jobs but with a holier than thou expression about saving earth. Puh….leeeeezz, try to be useful

      • Restaurant Unemployee | 24 March 2011 at 11:07 pm |

        who needs to work this year?

        just flip a condo.

      • Nemesis | 25 March 2011 at 4:53 am |

        “they are the epitome of success for all the suburban pituitary retards, and when i’m king they’ll be first against the wall, with a cat dc-9 to push the earth over the mass grave. they are clever, not intelligent “…

        I think you’ve already found your ‘métier’, RU… see above, hallmarks of a great writer (although I would have substituted ‘cunning’ for clever, it’s a nuance thing). ;)

        Should you ever feel the need (no, not the need for speed – that would be Nemesis’ outré/ZenRetreat)… the need to expunge/exfoliate the wearying, cumulative existential angst/malaise so emblematic of these times in which we find ourselves (and which, by extension, have driven many a poor soul to unnecessarily ‘beat themselves up’)… try these, they may help (as regards ascertaining ‘how our world really works’ – and thereby getting to the crux of ‘the problem’)…

        Winner Take All Society – Robert Frank

        http://tinyurl.com/4tu58hv

        Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle – Chris Hedges

        http://tinyurl.com/4cnmbaa

        and…

      • Nemesis | 25 March 2011 at 4:56 am |

        bonus titles….

        Outliers: The Story of Success – Malcolm Gladwell

        http://tinyurl.com/49bupkp

        Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America – Barbara Ehrenreich

        http://tinyurl.com/4asopt4

      • Laureate Money Punters | 25 March 2011 at 10:50 am |

        nem,

        i’d love to write for a living, but i’m terrified of people’s reactions. i don’t have a thick skin. nothing puts the kibosh on wanting to be a journalist like a) realizing the people who need to read, don’t anymore; b) watching someone like helen thomas have her character assassinated and her career and reputation destroyed; c) seeing journos and writers the world over ‘disappeared’ – these war reporters in Libya and elsewhere deserve way more respect than they’re given. being johnny appleseed and floating about the system is alright – and has given me a wealth of stories and observations i might not have had otherwise. boiling these things down so it’s understandable to the lowest common denominator isn’t really that difficult, since the crooks themselves are idiots. look at the pentagon spending in the U.S. – the problem isn’t that people can’t figure out how the Iron Triangle Socialism works and saps the lifeblood of the public, it’s that the entire public is enmeshed with the military – it just dominates the culture. everyone has a family member/friend in the military,

        “you work in inequity to achieve vanity” etc. etc. it’s getting the people that it affects to notice/realize what’s happening that is the tough part. again, they don’t want to read. reading is rubbish, and rubbish isn’t cool.

        while discussing the bubble we’ve basically peeled the onion down to the roots of the oligarchy that rules over us all with a velvet fist, the massive organized crime interests, the ChiComs, Wall Street, etc. etc. – these are entities that an individual – minus any kind of messianic complex – simply ought not to confront, again, unless you have some kind of death-wish. there’s a Leonard Cohen song about this “Everybody knows” – and they do – they just don’t care – basic animal desire for comfort and status trumps everything else. that you can flip some houses and get ahead of the working class, well who’d want to bother protesting a system like that?

        while visiting one of our ‘friendly’ (for now) asian corporate autocracies that parades itself as a democracy, i phoned my father (a survivor of the London Blitz) after reading through the newspapers (there were pictures showing a political rally that had a bubble machine blowing bubbles over the entire crowd, colored helium balloons let into the air, etc.) .. and i said “Dad, I think this country is completely fascist, and the public eats it up.”

        his response – and this is pragmatic wisdom here “Well, you can live very comfortably in fascism, you just can’t say anything about it.”

        i have a friend who’s taken up ice-climbing and i wonder why all these extreme sports fans don’t just realize that baiting the state and it’s main sponsors is way more extreme? is it that our desire to display this image of ourselves as fearless is more important (or easier) than taking a rubber bullet in the temple?

        i’ve read the Empire of Illusions book – it was great and I have a lot of respect for Hedges for tying these themes together. i didn’t really enjoy reading about the pro-wrestling fans – it reminded me of the Tosh.O episode #306 with the crying wrestling fan.

        i keep a list of all the titles you’ve recommended – unfortunately i can’t spare a dime on new books – a lot of these titles aren’t yet in the library or are always out – for obvious reasons. i am also in the middle of slogging through Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – my second attempt, i’ve made it all the way to the death of Julian ca. 363 a.d. – if history is any indicator, we are not far behind in terms of our own decline.

        i think bukowski said something to the effect of “watching the masses elevate fools into rich heroes” pretty well covers it. that and “the prejudices of the masses will always dismiss the wisdom of others”

        what i’m saying is that until Lady Gaga and 50 cent get a clue, grow some balls and a conscience, north america is doomed. war with china, either by proxy with india or directly, is probably the logical conclusion of it all within a generation or two. we’re 4 generations deep into the television culture.. all the pontificating on the internet is not helping. no one even knows what pontificating means.

        what did ken kesey say about the hippies? “we were trying to stop the end of the world.” i’ll agree with trent reznor on this one “the one two punch of corporate greed and religion were just too much.”

        re: cunning for clever, cunning reminds me of Black Adder – it’s too humorous to me – ‘clever’ reminds me of the briefcase full of soap on the airplane exchange between Tyler Durden and Jack on the plane, in that Jack is basically typical of our age, a total piece of shit.

        FTB

      • Nemesis | 28 March 2011 at 2:03 pm |

        Cool, Laureate!

  6. Ornamental Tepee Usury | 24 March 2011 at 5:43 pm | Reply

    i wish i could edit these posts..

    i meant to say, my suspicion is that it’s a mix of excess supply and a lack of discretionary income in the lower mainland.

    i’m sure they’ll pass some more futile, insanely draconian american style mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the near future, and that extra risk will curb supply and drive the prices back up, increasing the profits for the well established players. handshakes all around!

  7. tincup | 25 March 2011 at 9:38 am | Reply

    Something that has potential to curb supply and drive prices up again is the new smart meter program that BC Hydro is undertaking over the next 18 months. It’s expected the program will largely pay for itself just by reducing electricity theft to the tune of $100mil a year, and make it a lot easier to identify urban grow-ops.

  8. Peter | 28 March 2011 at 7:11 am | Reply

    tincup.. re smart meter…guess growers will have to upgrade to LED grow lights!

  9. Nemesis | 28 March 2011 at 2:10 pm | Reply

    Barring a Godzilla sighting somewhere near coastal Fukashima, the following, amusing/on topic link – is today’s last (it was passed to me earlier today by a literate old ‘bud’ and Humboldt native who toils on a plantation somewhere amidst the towering RedWoods)…

    [NYT] – The High Life

    “It’s a sad thing to see,” the local cannabis blogger Kym Kemp told me. “The big grower pulling in $5 million on an acre might be able to survive, but the single mom keeping a half dozen plants to make ends meet, she probably won’t make it…. Already, provisions in California’s medical marijuana law that permit card-carrying patients to keep small gardens have contributed to a 25 percent price drop in the past five years and continue to erode the competitive advantage of growers in the north.”

    http://tinyurl.com/4evvw2a

  10. Nemesis | 31 March 2011 at 4:16 am | Reply

    Further to questionable lending practices, conciliatory mortgage brokers (or is that broken mortgagors[ees]?) and other scoundrels, scallawags and rapscallions… this popped up this morning… ;)

    [G&M] – Former Ontario Tory candidate charged with fraud

    “Mr. Farooq, 35, whose full name is Salman Farooq Sheikh, faces as many as 14 charges, including fraud over $5,000, related to mortgages obtained in people’s names without their knowledge. Among the complainants is a former Pakistani vice-consul to Toronto whose name was used to buy a $640,000 home in suburban Newmarket. ”

    http://tinyurl.com/4l8d7dq

  11. Nemesis | 31 March 2011 at 4:40 am | Reply

    Pardon the oversight, but in my previous entry I neglected to abstract the following, tasty morsel…

    “As it turns out, Mr. Farooq’s two-storey, $1.1-million stucco house is a rental, and his mortgage brokerage – a one-room operation hidden in a nondescript Toronto office plaza – is owned by someone else.”

    And, lurking elsewhere on the inter-web, this bonus, seldom-seen and revealing self-promotional picture of ‘Sheik Farooq’ in broker-guise…

    http://tinyurl.com/4w792gm
    ;)

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