Highlighting the ongoing failure of the war on pot.
Right?
People would prefer to buy black market weed than go to the official stores where they have to pay taxes etc. I suppose some people buy there.
Official stores are doing good business in every legal-pot state.
Also under age people - they can’t buy in stores.
Nor booze - but there's no evidence that underage demand for that drug is sustaining a significant black market.
Plus the meth and heroin use hasn’t gone down at all, the idea that legal mj will diminish the use of “hard drugs” is another fantasy.
That's completely off-topic, however ... I agree that once one is using meth or heroin, one probably isn't going back to just pot even if it's legalized. But taking the pot out of the black market makes a transition to black-market harder drugs less likely.
Theory is all very well.
I, OTOH, am in the thick of it. Meth and heroin are not only going full blast but spreading. Legal mj does not diminish the use of “harder” drugs, in fact the reverse. A drug culture of anything goes, stone yourself out of your kind miasma encourages people to try anything.
Before mj was legalized, the county I live in was already a huge doper paradise, it just got even more so. Heroin and meth have increased for years, along with pot. Drugs are drugs and many people try mix and match. Once getting “high” (I call it getting “wasted”) is the goal, many people will try other stuff, as regular mj use gets boring and people have to use more and stronger to get the intoxication level they want. So many go go for other harder stuff too.
In Colorado other drug us is up too since mj legalization. Regarding no changes since legalization, it depends on location in the state and what a person runs into - personal experience, or reads. Your SIL may live in an area that hasn’t changed much. Overall, CO has had changes, not for the better.