I understand why rec prices are high, but I don't understand why they have been allowed to get high, and I'll explain.
You vote to legalize Marijuana because a) you think it should be legal, b) you want some quality control, c) you want to keep it out of the hands of kids (well, some of us do), d) you want the criminal element minimized, e) you want the tax revenue and f) you want to minimize or eliminate enforcement and punishment costs.
So let's say you legalize it, but only home growing. All that is going to get you is reduced enforcement costs. I don't know what kind of limits you'd set, but this will have minimal social benefit.
So you legalize it and allow for legal sales. And by extension, some degree of taxation. Theoretically you also get regulation, quality control and reduced access by minors. But you don't legalize home growing. Anyone of legal age can walk in to a store and buy some. It sounds pretty peachy to me, and is almost a win/win situation. Yeah, law enforcement might have budgets reduced slightly and the prison corporations might complain, but society seems to win. As long as you don't fuck with the medical side of it, I would be happy to end the discussion here. I'm Canadian/medical, and if I were a citizen of Washington state I would have voted for I-502 as long as it didn't interfere with my ability to get affordable medicine.
But for rec users is where I really start to get concerned. Medically I use 1g a day; more in the winter and when the weather is changing, and less in the summer. I can easily see rec users at that level of consumption (and more). At $20-25/g (sorry for discussing prices, but this is publicly available knowledge) rec I wonder how sustainable a legal usage habit is? $600-750 a month? So back to the black market with cheaper prices, no regulation, lesser quality control, no age restrictions, less tax revenue and criminal involvement. And society would generally call that a losing situation.
Apologies if I've got this wrong (someone from Washington please correct me if so), but there is a 25% tax on producers (growers), distributors and retailers?
Is the situation going to sort itself out as more growers come online? Can further referendums modify the tax structure of I-502 or is it set in stone?
Sorry for sounding so depressed, but I haven't had enough coffee this morning yet.
Tom