Prohib Selective Focus – Black Market

For the prohibitionist mindset to continue in today’s age, they need to keep the blinders on while sprouting similar talking points Anslinger said since the 1930s.  One of the most recent examples of keeping blinders on comes from recent articles regarding the marijuana “black market” in California.

Prohibitionists are quick to point out, and echo ad nauseum, news articles which say the black market in California has only expanded since recreational legalization. 

Now, having legalized recreational cannabis is a significant change in society.  The traditional, or black, market will always be hard to unseat.  The two biggest challenges, of course, are getting access to legal cannabis product and price. 

According to the latest information, 80% of communities in CA have banned recreational marijuana shops from opening or operating.  Prohibitionists, of course, cheer this effort as making community’s safer from the menace on society that is cannabis.

Wait a minute!

Without access to licensed, taxed, and regulated shops, where will folks get cannabis?  From their traditional seller, of course!  CA’s recreational market has continually missed estimates on sales and tax revenue.  Having high taxes and limited access to recreational shops will make it incredibly difficult for licensed shops to compete with the traditional market. 

For every town or locality that bans or restricts recreational shops from operating, they are allowing and giving territory to the unlicensed and underground cannabis dealers.  The dealers that won’t ID who buys, the dealers who don’t pay taxes, and the dealers who don’t have regulated and tested product.

But this issue continues the duality of the prohibitionist mindset and a refusal to link together how one thing they cheer can lead to their conclusions that legalization has “failed.”  Of course, painting legalization in a negative light, whenever possible, is the goal of prohibitionists in order to satisfy their world view that cannabis is evil and a scourge on society.