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A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales.
In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system.
Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can’t compete. Colorado, which launched legal pot sales last New Year’s Day, is facing a lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma alleging that they’re being overrun with pot from the state. Officials in both states say they must do more to drive customers into the recreational stores.
Ideas under discussion include reducing pot taxes to make recreational stores more competitive and eliminating medical dispensaries, which have been largely tolerated by law enforcement even though they aren’t allowed under state law. The challenge for lawmakers will be countering perceptions that they’re trying to squeeze sick people for cash.
In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system.
Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can’t compete. Colorado, which launched legal pot sales last New Year’s Day, is facing a lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma alleging that they’re being overrun with pot from the state. Officials in both states say they must do more to drive customers into the recreational stores.
How can you have two parallel systems, one that’s regulated, paying taxes, playing by the rules, and the other that’s not doing any of those things?
Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board, which oversees recreational pot
The difficulty of reconciling medical marijuana with taxed recreational pot offers a cautionary tale for states that might join Washington and Colorado in regulating the adult use of the drug. The question, lawmakers say, is how to direct people into the regulated system — maximizing state revenues — without hurting legitimately sick people who use marijuana.Rick Garza of the Washington Liquor Control Board, which oversees recreational pot
Ideas under discussion include reducing pot taxes to make recreational stores more competitive and eliminating medical dispensaries, which have been largely tolerated by law enforcement even though they aren’t allowed under state law. The challenge for lawmakers will be countering perceptions that they’re trying to squeeze sick people for cash.
I don’t want to wind up cracking down on people abusing the system in a way that negatively impacts the patients and the people who help them.
https://yahoonewsdigest-us.tumblr.c...al-marijuana-a-challenge-for-legal-pot-states
https://yahoonewsdigest-us.tumblr.c...al-marijuana-a-challenge-for-legal-pot-states
