Sky-High Taxes and NIMBY Regulations: How Pot Legalization is Losing in Colorado and Washington

My latest column for
The Daily Beast looks at pot legalization developments in
Colorado and Washington state. Voters in both places overwhelmingly
approved recreational use of marijuana last year. In January, both
states will implement insanely high taxes on weed and, in Colorado
at least, all manner of bans on which counties and cities can sell
pot.

The spirit behind the legalization efforts in both states was
that marijuana should be treated in a “manner similar
to alcohol.”

Unfortunately, it’s starting to look like both states are going
to treat pot in a manner similar to alcohol during
Prohibition. Not only are pot taxes likely to be sky high,
various sorts of restrictions on pot shops may well make it easier
to buy, sell, and use black-market marijuana rather than the legal
variety. That’s a bummer all around: States and municipalities will
collect less revenue than expected, law-abiding residents will
effectively be denied access to pot, and the crime, corruption, and
violence that inevitably surrounds black markets will continue
apace.

Read the whole thing.