Cannabis Fair

Legalizing cannabis in Washington and Colorado was a great idea, as far as it goes. It's quite an improvement over medical dispensaries, that require a physicians approval.

Still, licensed retail cannabis stores have a long way to go in providing affordable and accessible marijuana to those who need or want it. Consumers that live in small towns or rural areas might have to travel a couple hundred miles round trip to keep themselves supplied.

Colorado converted medical dispensaries to full-service retail outlets, thereby bypassing the onerous regulatory red tape imposed in Washington, where prices in non-metro areas are double the prices in Seattle, and four times that of the black market. While supporting public services with cannabis taxes is fine, it won't work if the legal price is so out of whack.

Someday, when cannabis fairs and festivals are the norm, and cannabis lounges dot the urban landscape like cocktail lounges do today, we'll wonder why it took so long. The answer, of course, is to be found in Puritanism and government corruption.

But who wants to talk about that, when there's so much fun to be had?