Legal Pot Black Markets Spur Ease in Taxes and Rules: New at Reason

When Colorado, Washington, and other jurisidictions legalized marijuana over the last few years, they made sure to heap on taxes and regulations that would keep the black market thriving. J.D. Tuccille reports:

Last month, Washington’s Liquor and Cannabis Board reported that, one and a half years after recreational marijuana was legalized in the state, the “best estimate on the breakdown” of the marijuana market is: “$480M medical (37 percent of market), $460M state-licensed recreational stores (35 percent of market) and $390M illicit (28 percent of the market).”

That is, the rules have been so restrictive in the “legal” Washington market for marijuana that people remain willing to risk arrest and imprisonment while trading hundreds of millions of dollars of the stuff in ways that violate the law.

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