Why Is California's Cannabis Black Market Still So Strong?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Journalist Scott Eden’s new book, “A Killing in Cannabis,” tells the story of a tech industry veteran who set out to make his mark in the newly legal marijuana industry — and how that dream ended with his murder in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We’ll talk with Eden about the crime and what it tells us about the continuing dominance of the cannabis black market. What do you think it would take to fix California’s cannabis marketplace? Guests: Scott Eden, investigative reporter; author, "A Killing in Cannabis: A True Story of Love, Murder and California Weed" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQED Podcasts comes from Landmark College, offering summer programs for high schoolers that support executive function and transition to college skills. Learn more at landmark.edu slash summer.
0:15.8	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Stanford Continuing Studies. This spring, join Emmanuel Luli for Light Marble and Miracle,
0:24.6	Italian art from Joto to Konova.
0:27.1	Explore centuries of Italian art from medieval innovation to Renaissance masters.
0:32.3	Continuing studies.standford.edu.edu.
0:36.4	From KQED.
0:40.2	Welcome to Forum.
0:41.6	I'm Mina Kim.
0:43.0	A man charged with the 2019 murder
0:45.0	of a Silicon Valley CEO
0:46.4	will stand trial this year.
0:48.5	He'll be the fourth and final person
0:50.8	to learn his fate.
0:52.0	In the killing of cannabis startup founder,
0:55.1	Tushar Atre.
1:00.3	All three other men have been convicted of murder and are now serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
1:03.1	The murder of Tushar Atre caught the attention of my guest, investigative journalist Scott
1:08.5	Eden, who saw in the brutal killing the entanglement of tech
1:13.1	industry ambition and the dark side of black market weed, which remains a potent force
1:18.4	despite legalization in California in 2016. Eden's book is called A Killing in Cannabis. And he joins
1:25.6	me now. Welcome to Forum, Scott.
1:31.0	So happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.