High Cannabis Taxes

Forty years on, the Puritan/Big Pharma opposition to cannabis--symbolized by the DARE hysteria--continues to support organized crime. Prohibition in the form of local bans on cannabis stores, combined with over-taxation of legally produced cannabis and banking restrictions, has been a boon to the drug cartels now exploiting the problems caused by these extremely burdensome regulations on licensed retailers.

As a result, the black market in California is three times as large as the legal market, depriving the state of needed revenue and putting public health and safety at risk from contaminated cannabis grown with banned pesticides. Of note, Colorado has twice as many licensed retailers, with only 15% of California's population.