I've been thinking lately about drug legalization and how it tends to transfer the wealth from selling drugs to the business owner class. I'm coming at this from having argued for years for across-the-board legalization of all drugs (with regulation for many drugs).
Where I live weed got legalized a few years ago. Before legalization there were lots of stores that sold weed, and they were all very chill, like more like a bodega vibe. After legalization it became very highly regulated, all those places closed, and now all the new weed stores feel like Apple Stores - obviously much more up front investment and a very different vibe.
This isn't a fully-formed thought, but I can't help but feel like this whole process starts with the poor having an easy way to make decent money then with decriminalization we have a slightly higher class of people making that money, and now with legalization it really is like the top 1% making this money.
None of this is an argument for putting people in cages for drugs, I'm just wondering if there's a better way than legalization? Or is the problem I'm seeing a regulation problem over a legalization problem?
I say legalisation even if it means corporatization are ultimately a good thing for drug users as it means drugs can be regulated for adulteration
Well food got drastically better after anti-adulteration laws were passed. No more sawdust in the bread
who cuts food safety that's incredibly fundamental it's so obviously important it has both food and safety in the literal name. yeah you can't trust an unregulated market to not adulterate products as evidenced by the fact that illegal drug dealers do it
And of course less people going to prison for something they plainly shouldn't.
Some of this has gotta be the latent effects of the War on Drugs in our psyche. I've noticed that every legal weed store near me goes way out of the way to appear sterile with bright liights and white countertops, unlike vape stores which tend to have mood lighting and dark wood furniture, and I'm 100% certain that that is a result of trying to sell to people who have been conditioned all their life to think of marijuana as dangerous by assuring them that everything's clean and high tech and safe. It also explains why the knee jerk reaction of legislatures is to regulate weed much harder than alcohol or tobacco, and why people writ large seem to be accepting of that status quo.
But small sellers getting pushed out of the market by sellers with more capital is exactly what's supposed to happen in this system, it's not just you.
I'd put forward that we dont have to think of it as a reform issue, we can organize against the police as revolutionary abolitionists without tinkering around the edges.
That said, if you're set on going the reform route:
The alternative normally put forward is decriminalization with low enforcement priority. Meaning, the cops won't bother you, but if they do it's a ticket.
But as socialists, I'd like to propose legalized home growing and smoking, legalized gifting, but citable selling. Or, mandate that weed stores and farms are coops that involve workers, buyers, and people near the farm as co-owners.
Because it prevents the kind of marijuana stores run by rich white businessmen with lots of capital up front from taking over the market, while also keeping people out of jail.
I don't see how fining people for selling weed helps with either of those things
All that would do is increase the price of weed. 100% of the cost of those tickets would be passed on to the buyers
Not necessarily? Aren't businesses, as a rule, charging as much as they can get away with already? that price/demand curve. It could be used as an excuse to drive up prices and people might be more ready to swallow it if there is a clear justification but increasing business costs doesn't always have a strong correlation with an increase in prices.
People like John Boehner are on the boards of marijuana investment firms. If there's money to be made, the 1% will write the rules to make it. Sorry for linking a shit source like the new york times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/politics/john-boehner-marijuana-cannabis.html
Agreed. Pretty sure some decrim states had swat teams kicking down people's doors for growing a couple dozen plants and doing smash and grabs on dispensaries, meanwhile there were full-on industrial grow ops with literal acres of corporate marijuana hydroponics spooling up that got ignored.
I remember seeing a documentary about this with pretty high production values, but I can't remember who made it
Legalization isn't the issue prima faciae. It's just the result of any commodity entering the legal market. People with the capital to both retail it at scale and quickly alter it to meet different consumers' wants will outcompete and muscle out small-time sellers. Think Walmart killing ma n' pa shops.
For cannabis I think you're right, but if the alternative is people getting jail time or fines I wouldn't take it.
Anything that stops anyone from spending any time in the judicial system is fucking great. 1 person not having to suffer those abuses is a beautiful thing.
the poor having an easy way to make decent money
Not as easy as it sounds. There's been a long history of drug trafficking being used to fund covert operations. Do some poor people make money they otherwise wouldn't? Sure, but they aren't the ones primarily benefiting from drug sales. You look at statistics on addiction they're often the ones whose lives are ruined by addiction too
Weed is different than other drugs
