The Growing Illegal Market of Cannabis

This past week Biden tweeted that fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year. His answer is to launch a significant surge to stop the sale and production of fentanyl is to impose substantial penalties to crack down. That tweet is short-sighted. The data shows that most Americans want to legalize cannabis at the Federal level. It sounds like prohibition in 2023. It makes me wonder who benefits from this, aka the Federal Government.

The primary reason people are being killed by fentanyl is that it has entered the illegal market, where most people purchase drugs. Using drugs is not going away. One answer, and the best answer, is to make cannabis federally legal.

On Saturday evening, we went to see the Knicks. Across the street from MSG is a corner cannabis store. They have done an excellent job. Reggae is blasting, and the products are well displayed; even the cannabis design gives the store a pop. A bonus is that they are next to a delicious slice shop—pure NYC.

Here is the thing, I wouldn’t touch the stuff in that store because nobody knows where these products are from. If you walked the streets of NYC and asked people if these stores are legal, they would probably say yes. Most NYers have no idea these stores are not following the new rule of the law. Has anyone considered making PSAs instead of espousing how fentanyl can kill you?

It is an exciting time for NY to have legal dispensaries, but the support from the Federal Government is nil. The legal stores aren’t coming fast enough, and it is not easy to open up a legal dispensary because the Federal Government makes it so hard regardless of state support. How does NY state shut down the thousands of illegal dispensaries, particularly the city, when they look like this store? How do the legal stores compete?

Personally, I want to know where my shit is coming from. Perhaps this is just capitalism in one of its finer or not-so-finer moments.