Dalgarno Institute Website - Cannabis Black Market Thrives Despite Legalization (Rutgers)

And there’s nothing wrong with this promise – a black market designed to facilitate the sale of an illegal substance should dissipate as that substance becomes legalized. This destruction of the illegal marijuana market makes logical sense – so much so that it became one of the primary arguments used by pro-legalization politicians to promote the drug. So now, years after the first legalization of recreational cannabis in 2012, the illegal markets should be fading into obscurity.

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But many attentive residents of legalized states know that this promise hasn’t panned out. Cannabis’ illegal market is anything but dying; in some cases, it’s more active than it has been in years.

Take California for example: first in the nation to legalize the medical use of the drug in 1996, the state would go on to legalize recreational use in 2016. But in just the past year, the state reported several massive illegal cannabis busts, with 20 tons of cannabis confiscated off a series of farms, $8 million worth of plants found in a thought-abandoned warehouse alongside a busy highway, and 100+ illegal operations busted in the southern town of Anza – just over the last three or four months.

What’s more, police reports suggest that arrests for pot crimes have increased following the drug’s legalization. Among such reports are a series of police records secured by the Los Angeles Times in early 2019 – compared to the rates of cannabis smuggling from before legalization was implemented, the documents suggest that arrests have risen as much as 166% since 1996. For more Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies (rutgers.edu)

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Cannabis Black Market Thrives Despite Legalization (Rutgers)

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