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| Can Legal Weed Win? : The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics
ISBN: 9780520383272
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / University of California Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Economics; Business/ Management;
In this lucid and pragmatic analysis, U.C. Davis economists Goldstein (The Wine Trials) and Summer extinguish overheated predictions about the potential size and profits of the legal marijuana market. Claiming that many investors "have lost most of the money they ever invested in weed," the authors examine the forces working against legal marijuana, including the persistence of the illegal retail market, where prices are as much as 50% lower; burdensome regulations and compliance standards, including child-proof packaging, safety and potency tests, and safe waste disposal protocols; and long waiting periods for expensive state and local licenses. Throughout, Goldstein and Summer debunk urban legends and offer counterintuitive advice, claiming, for instance, that the psychoactive differences between Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica are hard to distinguish (despite budtenders' claims to the contrary), and that national legalization (which they predict will happen within 30 years) will put many existing retailers in high-priced and strictly regulated states like Massachusetts and California out of business by increasing interstate competition and lowering retail markups. The authors' practical advice for growers, retailers, and investors includes advocating for local standards to be applied to out-of-state weed and cultivating the reputation of locally grown marijuana. Jargon-free and data-rich, this is a clear-eyed analysis of a hazy market. (June)
Goldstein Robin :
Robin Goldstein is an economist and author of The Wine Trials , the controversial exposé of wine snobbery that became the world's best-selling guide to cheap wine. He is Director of the Cannabis Economics Group in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis. He has an AB from Harvard University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in economics from the University of Bordeaux.
Daniel Sumner is Frank H. Buck, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis. He grew up on a California fruit farm, served on the president's Council of Economic Advisers, and was Assistant Secretary of Economics at the US Department of Agriculture before joining the UC Davis faculty. He has a BS from Cal Poly and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. |
