With more states embracing some form of marijuana legalization, it’s worth looking at examples of where legalization regimes are either not working or are on the brink of failure.
Regrettably, California tops both lists. The Golden State had an opportunity to become a model for legalization. Instead, state and local governments are crushing the legal market and helping the illicit market thrive. As The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson writes:
The once-mystical heart of the nation’s marijuana industry is dying, fast, strangled not by law enforcement but by the high taxes and baffling regulation that have crushed small farmers since state voters approved legalization almost six years ago.
The results are entirely predictable:
The state imposed multiple taxes across the cannabis supply chain, a burden unmatched in other nearby marijuana-legal states. At the same time, the state declined — after initially signaling it would do so — to limit the size of cannabis cultivations or the number of grower licenses it would issue to farmers.
As a result, the state is now awash in tax revenue, much of it from the industrial-scale farmers and retailers, and in marijuana, a market glut that has gutted wholesale prices and left [small] farmers…unable to break even.
And with that sort of market distortion, what happens? Yup: The black market gets a boost:
The state rules and omissions have also empowered a still-thriving black market for marijuana — once a chief target of state regulators — whose growers sell their product illegally across state borders and still fetch a lucrative price.
It will continue to do so as long as the legal market remains a pawn of political rather than market forces. And, of course, old-fashioned government greed.
The upside to California’s botched experiment in legalization is other states considering the idea can look to it as an example of what not to do if the goal is to have a stable, productive market that fully replaces the illegal trade.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Tasha Yar of Star Trek The Next Generation said it best when she described drug taking as trying to forget about your problems. You feel good. But when the trip wears off, you are still faced with the same old problems.
We have forgotten God. We don’t know how to thank Him for us being in the richest nation on Earth. And we don’t know how to pray to him for His help. Money is our god. Power is our goal. Gratification is our achievement.
To know, love, and serve God is our purpose in life; and to love our fellow man.
Legalizing Pot was one of the biggest mistakes America could make. Just look at the Dope heads in the white house and the Jack Asses in the senate and house. God save us from all the evil in Government.
Why do you think they call it DOPE.
Solution is Zero
At least NY wasn’t stupid enough to go into business for themselves. This is the problem for a State like California where it’s all about the money.
California is one big “F” up just waiting to cluster!
If we don’t wake up, we will all be California…Californicated!