Posted by Colin Dowlen.
The main purpose of this article that is titled, Marijuana’s black market is undercutting legal businesses, is to inform the readers about the topic of buying and selling marijuana, and how in New York, the unlicensed companies are making the same impact on people as the legal businesses are, which are hurting the state’s economy. The beginning of the article states how New York just gave out its first dispensary licenses last month, even though marijuana has been legal in the state for almost two years. Trivette Knowles, a press officer who is a part of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management stated, “These shops are masquerading as safe, legal entities, but there are currently no licensed sales happening right now in the state of New York.” This part shows that even though business can sell marijuana legally now, the other companies are still out selling them because they have been around longer, and since selling marijuana is legal, there is nothing that can be done about it. Reiman of New Frontier Data, states that unregulated markets pose health risks for the consumers, for example, a studied showed that 40% of the stores contained harmful containments.
The last section of the article states that consumers turn to the black-market stores for marijuana because of the cheaper prices. Statistics show that California, which many believe will be the same as New York if things do not change, is that, like New York, California is a high taxed state. This means that black-market companies will always be more popular than state registered companies because of the cheaper prices, less taxes, etc. With that being said, states need to find an alternative that will either lower the prices of marijuana, or taxes need to change.
In my opinion, I think this issue will continue for a long time because it is impossible to change state taxes or have licensed businesses lower their prices because then there will be no profit for these businesses. Without profit, states will lose money in the industry, which could lead to more problems. I don’t think there is any way that it would be possible for these state businesses to overtake the black-market places because they are so far behind in sales but are also a lot cheaper for the community.
Colin is a business major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2026.