This is what legalization looks like

It's started to spread across the country, especially in beer aficionado circles, but here's a news story that first started attracting chuckles here in Vermont. From the Burlington Free Press:

The Vermont Department of Liquor Control cited a Burlington woman who they say sold the popular Vermont beer Heady Topper online.

Stephanie Hoffman, 28, of Burlington, was cited to appear at Franklin County Superior Court on Dec. 30, accused of Violation of Title, for selling malt or vinous beverages or spirits without a title allowing her to do so.

 It's pretty irresistable, right? Hipsters willing to overpay for overhopped beer, headlines for Vermont's current fave local product, juxtaposed with a little private enterprise and a government agency too concerned with prosecuting minor, if not imaginary, victimless crimes. If you're looking for a little harmless diversion on your way to some serious news, this one has it all.

Only the thing is, get used to it.

Nowadays the tide on marijuana prohibition has turned, and just about every sensible person agrees that legalization is inevitable, with the only question being “How soon?”. The problem is that as a recent article in the New Yorker makes clear, legalization of marijuana is way more complicated than clearing the path for you to keep buying from your old college roommate (let's call him Dave), only without worrying about getting caught.

 No. Remember how part of the argument for legalized marijuana has always been that it's such a lucrative agricultural product that we might as well be collecting taxes on it? Maybe enough to wipe out the deficit?

Well, to be sure the taxes are being collected we have to do way more than tell the cops to stop arresting dealers, we also have to establish a whole regulated, taxed market, which is pretty complicated. They're trying to do it right now in Washington, but new questions pop up at every turn. For example, if you want people to buy their pot in the regulated market, and not keep buying it from Dave you have to give them reasons to make the switch.

As Mark Kleiman, a public policy expert, says in the New Yorker article:

   “One of the ideas that has actuated the cannabis-legalization movement is that law enforcement really has bigger fish to fry,” he said. “We’d rather have cops chasing burglars than pot sellers. And that’s a reasonable viewpoint.” He paused. “But the implication of . . . a legal commercial market is not that you need less enforcement.” The city councillors looked anxious. “That’ll be true in the long run,” Kleiman allowed. “In the long run, there shouldn’t be much of an illegal business. . . . In the short run, though, the answer is just the opposite.

 We want people to pay the taxes, which means they're going to have to stop going to their old friend Dave and start going downtown, maybe right next door to where they buy their Heady Topper. Otherwise, no taxes, no controls on safety and purity of product, chaos.

That doesn't sound terribly bad to me, and maybe not to you. After all, if marijuana is going to be a legal product, why should I care any more if the people selling it have licenses than I care about any other legal product, like flashlights or umbrellas in New York City within thirty seconds of when it starts raining?

Well, we want to collect the tax, right? And why would someone buy in a licensed retailer, where you know you're going to pay the tax on top of the price, when they can call Dave, get a bag, and pay less?

Which is where our Heady Topper entrepreneur comes in. Beer is a legal product, and just about every adult is allowed to buy it, but that doesn't mean everyone who is lucky enough to get their hands on a case of the old Topper is allowed to sell it legally.

You should read the New Yorker article. You'll see that, at a minimum, it raises questions you probably never thought about. 

3 thoughts on “This is what legalization looks like

  1. Not as easy as it looks for shiz & we can bet Uncle Sam is hard at work determining how to wring every drop of revenue so it’s more for them & less for us as usual. But balancing budget for the greater good & better society is somewhat worthy.

    I’m suspecting the good & great stuff will not be legal & will all be for the “thems” so in the end some will still be outlaws. Oh well, at least they will still maintain the cred so it could be worse.

  2. Just because Gucci bags are (for some reason) legal, that doesn’t stop a whole lot of people from selling cheap knockoffs made in China.

    It is the market-driven, “free-enterprise system” run amok. 😉  Only difference is that the pirates making the profits aren’t the ones sitting in the corporate seats.

  3. You can brew (grow) up to 200 gallons (ounces? grams?) a year. You can share it with your friends. You can pop a six pack (bag) of it in the trunk and take it to the (ahem) pot luck dinner. You just can’t give it to minors or sell it.

    People without the time or space or green thumb can go down to the state liquor and pot store and get their vacuum packed tax stamped package.

    Most people buy beer, even though they could make it themselves. I imagine the same will be true for pot.

    Heady Topper, indeed.

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