a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
rezzeJ  ·  3799 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, and Expensive - Olga Khazan - The Atlantic

Perhaps, but it's a delicate balance. There was a bestof last month about the effect of medical, and in turn, recreation legalisation on the underground market in Colorado.

To summarise, recreational shop prices are already pretty high. However, their great standards and reliability made them popular. Everyone has their stories of having to wait hours for replies from a dealer, only to be turned down or receive a poor deal of poor product. So the illegal market took a hit, but it actually made it stronger. The low quality dealers moved on, but the good dealers strengthened. They got better strains, became more reliable, less shady, improved in every way.

Now this is where the high recreational prices come in. After the buzz died away of being able to buy legally, people noticed the price. Because of taxes and regulations, the home-growers are now able to noticeably underprice the shops whilst still having mostly equal quality product. So the market shrunk, but became better in the process. So the underage experimenters can still access Cannabis if they want to, and it's better product and cheaper.

Here's the bestof.