A year and a half after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, society continues to function. That’s the observation presented by Reason TV in the above report. Christian Sederberg, an attorney who actively promoted the change in policy, reflects on the fallout — or lack thereof. “[Critics] set a very specific expectation in a lot of people’s minds that this was going to be this terrible thing, and it just hasn’t played out at all,” he told Reason’s Alexis Garcia.
Regarding complaints of a flourishing black market under the new legal arrangement, Sederberg argues that change occurs over time. “Here’s the deal. $700 million of sales last year did not go through the black market. They went through regulated stores, taxed and regulated. This year, we’re talking about close to a billion [in anticipated legal sales]. So anyone that’s saying the black market is flourishing… [it’s] ‘flourishing’ having lost a billion dollars.”
It seems odd to point to a lingering black market as an argument for effectively expanding that same market. Black markets are creatures of the state. If you don’t want a black market, legalize commerce. Otherwise, so long as there are people willing to buy and others willing to sell, they will connect with each other one way or the other.
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