The legalization of recreational marijuana is having unintended consequences throughout the East Coast, as evidenced by recent stories in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. This incautious policy is harming communities and should be repealed.
For example, the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, recently implemented a one-year moratorium on smoke shops after police seized more than 500 pounds of marijuana products in them. The Connecticut Post quoted a police officer who leads the city’s narcotics division and said that “on average, anytime we were going out, we were getting an excess of between 50 to 100 pounds total of THC-based, plant-based product, as well as gummies and oils and things of that nature.”
The article from August 16th added that the city has more than 50 smoke shops and that “about half a dozen are near schools, day cares, other educational institutions or houses of worship, while some shops are less than a mile apart.” Although voters were promised that marijuana would be sold only through licensed and regulated retailers––and that the underground market for marijuana would be displaced––the opposite has unfolded in Connecticut.
The same issue has occurred in Maine. The Maine Wire on August 18th reported: “what began as an investigation into a shooting in Baltimore has grown into a superseding indictment for drug trafficking, conspiracy, and money laundering that now includes at least two Chinese nationals with ties to cannabis cartels operating in Maine.” The case, as it evolved through investigations, resulted in the seizure of more than $6 million and more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana.
Like in Connecticut, the legalization of marijuana in Maine has given cover to operators in the underground market, who sell tax-free products that undercut the legal market. In this case, the proceeds from the illegal sale of marijuana are being routed back through vast criminal networks led by foreign nationals from adversarial countries.
In turn, recognizing the problems associated with legalization, some jurisdictions have begun taxing the industry to offset related costs. A prior study in Colorado estimated that every $1 in tax revenue from marijuana was associated with $4.50 in costs. However, after the city of Newton, Massachusetts, collected $2.4 million in “community impact fees” (CIF) from local marijuana retailers in an effort to offset these costs, a judge ruled that these fees must be returned to the industry, according to an article published by the Newton Beacon on August 20th.
Now, recognizing that the legalization of marijuana has failed to deliver as promised, communities are starting to push back. This November, Massachusetts will vote on whether to recriminalize the legal sale of recreational marijuana, marking the first time that a state is voting on such a measure. A similar effort is underway in Maine.
Though East Coast voters were sold rosy promises about the legalization of marijuana, many of those promises have fallen short, leaving local communities struggling with an expanded underground market for marijuana and less funding to address it. These issues will surely continue—and worsen—unless steps are taken to undo flawed legalization policies.