Legalisation stokes demand for marijuana
Although I tend to agree with the arguments of those who contend that the War on Drugs has caused more problems than it has solved, I’m still instinctively sceptical about the merits of legalising drugs on the basis that it’s always a lot harder to get the genie back in the bottle.
One of the things that legalisation would probably stimulate, at least initially, is increased demand. This viewpoint appears to be borne out by the infographic below developed by the Coalition Against Drug Abuse which analysed tweets concerned with New Year’s resolutions. Probably as a result of the legalisation of marijuana in many US states (see this account by the Economist on how the legal market works in Colorado), they found many more people resolving to smoke more cannnabis in 2014 than those seeking to give up.
I’d be interested to hear your views on legalisation via the comments section below.
