For years marijuana was legal in California, for recreational and medical use. But now illegal sellers and producers are dominating the sector. What is the secret to this? It turns out that government officials have made cannabis so complicated it is still cheaper for people to buy it on the black marketplace. Similar to the case with alcohol and tobacco, politicians are finding that it doesn’t matter if they only “legalize,” a product popular in their country, as people will buy it wherever is convenient.
California’s stringent regulations made cannabis illegal in California, and not Main Street. This has led to many industry workers fleeing the state, closing down shop or selling on the illegal state market. It is estimated that California sells more than twice as much marijuana annually. Politico’s Alexander Nieves reportedOver the weekend
It PoliticoPiece followed by a Bold press releaseCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta announced “the eradication or nearly 1.2million illegally grown marijuana plants” and “the seizure or seized more than 180,000 pounds illegally processed cannabis.”
This was an extraordinary law enforcement “victory” against the product, which is legal in California to grow and to sell. Proposition 64, which was passed in 2016, allowed recreational marijuana to be grown and sold within the state of California. It came after 20 years of limited availability. Problem is, however, that marijuana is heavily taxed and regulated, making it difficult to operate legally and causing retail prices to remain high.
A statement by a Analysis of the 2020 Market by Applied Development Economics. The illegal market is still responsible for a significant portion of California’s cannabis sales. This is because, even though legalization was passed, the barriers for above-board sales have remained high enough that “the illicit cannabis market accounts for about three-fourths” of California’s cannabis sales.
One year later PoliticoIt is noted that marijuana retail in California has been banned by 68 percent of cities, which includes large areas of Central Valley. The price of cannabis products purchased in legal dispensaries is often two to three-times higher than similar items bought in unlicensed shops. These are not subject to cultivation and excise taxes which drive up the retail costs.
It would be a shame if politicians didn’t know that humbling a legal industry would almost have the same impact as banning it from operating underground. It’s particularly true for industries that have been in shadows for many decades and are used to ignore the law. However, politicians are there to help. shouldLearn from past examples.
Canada This was the path I took not too long agoTaxes and other red tape are also added to the financial burden of newly licensed marijuana users.
According to me, $1.4 Million was the most sales for any Newfoundland retailer. But I barely make it by,” said one vendor. According to the CBCIn 2019. He complained that a law-recorded commission was cut in half by taxes and credit card charges. In the end, there was still an illegal market Five to seven times greaterSales are higher than in the legal marketplace.
Washington also had a state before that. Legal-friendly MarketWith deliberately restrictive rules It is intendedTo be annoying.
The free market works well to maximize consumption. It shouldn’t apply to this product. huffedMark Kleiman is a public policy professor who served as a consultant to the state’s marijuana regulators. “I would not want the same system for alcohol. But we lost that fight.”
According to the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, “Regulations are often imposed upon legal suppliers with an aim to prevent criminal activities in the licensed systems and preventing overconsumption of public health protection,” ReportHow to stop the flourishing illegal market. “Such regulations —including excise taxes, limits on cultivation capacity, and traceability monitoring of legal production—may reduce the competitive advantage of legal suppliers, thereby providing support to the illicit market.”
According to the authors of this report, “We did not find any evidence that effective measures were available for suppressing illegal markets in this setting.”
The earliest days of the alcohol marketKleiman regrets that, but it was clear that customers are driven to the black market by high taxes and strict regulations for marijuana products.
Illinois is more expensive than Indiana for alcohol reportedChicago ABC affiliate, 2015. It is also more expensive in Cook County where liquor taxes are five times as high than in Indiana. This resulted was steady flow of Indiana-imported booze for Illinois bargain-seekers.
The chance of importing booze from another state is one in four when you buy liquor or order cocktails in New York. Crain’s New York Business estimatedThe state’s high tax rates were a major reason for the decline in 2016
There are no taxes on cigarettes You can also see it hereNew York has higher rates of crime than many other areas, which is consistent with the predictable outcomes.
“In 2018, New York was 53.2 percent higher than the total state cigarette consumption, making it the largest net importer for smuggled cigarettes.” AccordingThe Tax Foundation. The organization also points out that “banning flavored tobacco products … may result in much lower revenue from the cigarette tax by driving consumers to procure their cigarettes illegally or from jurisdictions without bans.”
Public policy specialists have often had to point out that legal and illegal are not necessarily opposed. They exist on a continuum. You can ban something, but people may not remember it exists. You can also allow something, but it must be so limited that underground businesses are the only way to access it.
California officials have created a legal market that’s less attractive than its cheaper and more flexible counterpart. They will have to make the market competitive by allowing all participants to participate.