I believe in free markets — but not for narcotics. In Colorado, the stoners are happy as can be now that the state has legalized pot use for fun. If you still think the marijuana legalization movement is about medical need, think again.
“Adult use” is the marijuana industry’s preferred euphemism for legal recreational use of cannabis, weed, pot — call it what you like. Marijuana became legal for recreational purchase and use in Colorado on the first of this year, and adult-use facilities are doing a booming business. Shop owners estimated that in their first day they made more than $1 million in collective sales.
At Brooke Gehring’s dispensary in Edgewater, Colo., a suburb of Denver, 592 recreational customers showed up on Jan. 1. By contrast, only four patients came in for medical weed that day. Since then, more than 2,500 recreational users have come through the doors, more customers than the shop had seen in the previous two months combined. The average purchase was more than $100, with taxes levied by the state included in the price.
On your next trip to Colorado — an absolutely gorgeous state — you must now wonder which of the people driving on the highways, or cooking your dinner, or driving your taxicab, are the pot equivalent of drunk.