Washington Pot Stores Open, But Some Activists Aren't Celebrating

USNews ^ | 0708/2014 | Steven Nelson

[Rusty0604]

Veteran marijuana activist Douglas Hiatt, right, says Washington's Initiative 502 establishes a "Soviet style" market for marijuana and won't work.

“You’re going to have people selling grams of pot for $25? What, are you kidding me?” Hiatt says. “You can get the best pot you have ever smoked for 10 bucks a gram at a [medical marijuana] dispensary or from someone else who's going to give you a better deal than the state.”

There’s no way they are going to eliminate the black market with something that’s totally unresponsive to a market at all,” Hiatt says. "You're going to see very quickly the problems when you try to do things Soviet style. When you're using universally rejected planning economy theory, you're going to reap disaster."

But his advice to lawmakers: "You want to take the people doing whatever the illegal activity was and you make them legal. You don't create this giant freaking bureaucracy, you don't start trying to do economic planning that would make Lenin proud, you let the free market work."

[Rusty0604]

That is correct. They can only tax it to the point that is makes economic sense to purchase it legally, otherwise people will turn to the black market.

[ConservingFreedom]

As is happening with cigarettes in NYC.

[nascarnation]

Interesting approach.
The free market finds a way!

[Cementjungle]

The same thing happened in Washington a couple of years ago when they privatized the state liquor stores. The state imposed heavy taxes, and liquor wound up being even more expensive than it was before.