if the taxes are too high, the market will fail and the majority of people will still use the black market. they'll get a lower tax yield and less safety for users.
That hasn't proven to be the case. People who were willing to use the black market before may go back, but in the states that have legalized the bulk of buyers are now people who never used the black market and would not chose to even with very high taxes.
Also lot of the most popular products are stuff the black market never really went into, like gummies, concentrates, etc.
That said, I think OR got it right at about 20% right now, though there's a bill proposed to raise that to ~30%, mostly to raise the local municipalities cut from 3% to 10%.
Washington state cannabis has something like 47% tax and it’s very healthy, the black market is not exactly booming. Most of the material on the black market is leaking from licensed grow ops though.
It is more a question of convenience, quality, variety and availability. Canada had a slow start but more than half of cannabis consumers there are now buying legally, because the legal product has surpassed the illegal one in all these areas.
I'm just saying, in Washington there's a 37% tax rate... so clearly you can get it pretty high. Probably because weed is cheaper even with the tax than it was on the black market.
I don't smoke so don't know the specific numbers but pretty much all of the people I know that smoked before it was legal have gone back to their old dealers after their glee from buying from a store wore off.
They usually say that they hate the fact that most of the licenses have gone to rich old dudes who most certainly in the past voted for policies that ruined alot of peoples lives but are happy to make a profit off it now, people like Boehner. They'd much rather support their local dealer who doesn't even have access to a license.
But when you press them on it prices seem to be up to half as much for the same amount and nobody is worried about their weed potentially containing anything dangerous.
That said I assume something similar played out after prohibition. I'm sure there were lots of people who kept making moonshine and lots of people who continued to buy illegally, but over time the number of people doing either basically decreased to zero. I doubt any one looking to smoke the first time is buying illegally. There has been push back on the licensing process to make it more equitable so hopefully the local dealers can get in on it in the future.
What is not the case? 37% tax or weed being cheaper now that it is legalized? Because I can say with extreme confidence that both are true. I can also say that the quality has increased. You can easily fact check the tax rate too.
> They usually say that they hate the fact that most of the licenses have gone to rich old dudes
I'm not sure how this responds to anything I said. This is orthogonal and a completely different conversation. Have you also considered that your friends aren't the norm?
> But when you press them on it prices
So you confirm what I said above. I'll admit now this is a confusing conversation. You open by saying you _absolutely_ disagree with me and then confirm my statement. This has been one wild conversation.
yeah but "lower the tax rate" is a lot easier of an incremental policy change than "litigate the tax rate on cannabis before legalization even happens".
every restaurant and bar I've been to in Brooklyn in the last week now also has the menu, ordering, and payment entirely through the QR codes. most using the Toast platform. I don't see this trend going back the other way.
