Not unexpectedly, Colorado’s illegal marijuana market has been reported as thriving. The reasons for this are pretty straightforward. First, it is a new and highly regulated market making it difficult to supply products and keeping legal marijuana prices high. Also, steep taxes on legal marijuana exceeding 30% also are keeping prices high.
Camouflaged amid the legal medicinal and recreational marijuana market, the underground market thrives. Some in law enforcement and on the street say it may be as strong as it’s ever been, so great is the unmet local and visitor demand. That the black market bustles in the emerging days of legalisation is not unexpected.
By some reckonings, it will continue as long as residents of other states look to Colorado – and now Washington state – as the nation’s giant cannabis cookie jar. And, they add, as long as its legal retail competition keeps prices high and is taxed by state and local government at rates surpassing 30%.
