I recently wrote about the parlous state of the cannabis industry. Sales are down at licensed dispensaries. The black market—unburdened by taxes, regulations, and agricultural rules—booms while trashing the environment and undercutting legit businesses on price.
Yet industry observers continue to cheerlead as if these realities don’t exist.
For example, a NYT piece by Anna P. Kambhampaty rhapsodizes about bringing high-end aesthetics to the design of dispensaries so they feel more like a “boutique or fancy cocktail lounge.” You know, by adding a “massive floral installation” or a “koi pond” or a “disco ball.”
What world is APK living in? Floor space costs money, as do florists and koi-boys. She likes the idea of a “a cannabis terpene scent installation” that creates a “multi-sensory shopping experience” with a museum-like feel that appeals to a “diverse” audience.
Has APK ever waited in line at a Colorado dispensary on a Friday afternoon? It’s full of oil field roughnecks, tattooed pinkhairs, old geezers, young roofers, mountain mamas, and code monkeys. That’s a pretty diverse crowd and their fondest hope is for quick, polite service along the lines of Chick-fil-A or Waffle House. Koi ponds, not so much.
The cannabis cheerleaders are also relentless in pushing legalization at the national level. This will make things soooo much better!
Well, not according to City Journal’s Steve Malanga. He points out that every push for legalization at the state level has claimed that it would reduce or eliminate the (violent, cartel-ridden, environment-trashing) black market. And in no case has that happened. In fact, it’s likely that a legal national market will produce an enormous black market. In order to salvage the highly-taxed, highly-regulated legal market, you’d be looking at a massive nationwide law enforcement crackdown. Richard Nixon would blush.
Not to mention that once it is legal everywhere pot will become even more of a commodity crop. The golden tax-revenue geese in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and California will not be laying nearly as often.
Soooo much better!
Speaking of not making sense, here’s some outro music—dance it off!