Report: Colorado is Successfully Regulating Cannabis
By Morgan Fox, Marijuana Policy Project
Lengthy report concludes, ‘Regulations address key concerns such as diversion, shirking, communication breakdowns, illegal activity, and the financial challenges facing the marijuana industry’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Colorado is successfully regulating marijuana, according to a report released Thursday by the Brookings Institution’s Center fo
r Effective Public Management.
“The state has met challenging statutory and constitutional deadlines for the construction and launch of a legal, regulatory, and tax apparatus for its new policy,” according to the report authored by John Hudak, a Brookings fellow in Governance Studies. “In doing so, it has made intelligent decisions about regulatory needs, the structure of distribution, prevention of illegal diversion, and other vital aspects of its new market. It has made those decisions in concert with a wide variety of stakeholders in the state.”
More and more evidence is showing that states can, and should, regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. As an increasing number of Americans decide that they are sick of arresting adults for using marijuana responsibly, the lessons from the states that have regulated marijuana successfully will become even more important.
“This report reflects what is actually happening on the ground here in Colorado,” says Mason Tvert, the Denver-based director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project who co-directed the 2012 Colorado initiative campaign. “The state is proving that regulating marijuana works. It explains why the new law is experiencing just as much public support now as it did when voters approved it in 2012.
“Colorado is proving that there is an alternative to marijuana prohibition,” Tvert continues. “The state is generating millions of dollars in new tax revenue, and hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana sales are taking place in legitimate businesses instead of in the underground market.
“Opponents’ fears have proven to be unfounded. Since Colorado began regulating medical marijuana in 2010, it has experienced major economic growth, the real estate market is flourishing, and tourism has reached record levels. Officials have not found one instance of marijuana businesses selling to minors, and rates of marijuana use have remained steady. There has been no increase in crime linked to the new law, and law enforcement officials are no longer spending their time punishing adults for possession,” added Tvert.
Jim Geesman
What does your sense of liberty say? What does your doctor and all of science say? What does your public policy adviser say? What does your economist say? Before too long we’ll even be asking what does Bill O’Reilly say? Not that what he says means a thing, but as one of the staunch prohibitionists I’m proposing that the evidence will eventually get through his thick skull, too. Schedule III and get it done!