Medical or Recreational Marijuana: Where the Law Is Leading People

What followed recreational cannabis regulation laws? Rather where the regulation of recreational marijuana is leading businesses and customers (and maybe policymakers, states and other concerned groups)? Is regulation, any good?

The world watched Colorado on January 1, 2014, when dispensary gates opened for the first time—for recreational marijuana use. According to Denver.com, lines had reached around retail outlet blocks and social media users went crazy over posting selfies of their first-ever successful purchase of ‘legal’ recreational marijuana in the state.

This historical event was all because of Amendment 64 in which the residents of Colorado are allowed to buy and possess up to one (1) ounce of recreational marijuana at a time, an event very historical for the proposition as well as for the big shift in perception about the once-demonized drug—cannabis.

But while most pot smokers went celebrating to the new freedom the Colorado government has given them, there is one downside they hate, an increase in marijuana prices (*Based off existing prices of marijuana for medical use, something that has already been legal in the state for almost a decade).

And here’s another issue to be puzzling marijuana businesses. When a state legalizes recreational marijuana (under regulation), the question as to whether both industries ‘medical and recreational marijuana’ should continue to exist.

According to Canna Law Blog, as published, “Medical vs. Recreational Marijuana in 2015,” that question becomes more serious because the medical cannabis industry remains uncontrolled or unregulated, while recreational cannabis businesses will remain highly controlled and taxed. In this case of medical vs. recreational marijuana, recreational cannabis business owners think that the competition is unfair because they have to compete with an uncontrolled, unregulated counterpart.

And to express their view, the recreational cannabis businesses have started lobbying or appealing, pointing out that if the state would want to get the most tax revenues from cannabis sales as well as to guarantee public safety, the government has to shut down all unregulated medical cannabis businesses. Not only that regulation affected recreational cannabis sellers, but users are well; in fact, most users are going to medical and illegal markets to access cannabis due to regulation.

To support this claim, according to sources, the black market, since 2012, has exploded from the time that the voters legalized marijuana in Washington, while pot delivery services boast their capability of selling outside of this said legal system. And to add up to these chain reaction due to controlling recreational cannabis, the number of Colorado patient registrations, since 2012, went up, seemingly avoiding paying higher taxes that come with recreational pot.