In many areas, despite cannabis legalization, the black market for cannabis is still thriving; which encompasses all of the exchanges that are taking place outside of the system entirely.
Some exchanges fall into a middle zone though, what has often been referred to as a 'grey market', and those exchanges might not include activity that is outright illegal. In a variety of circumstances, cannabis has been decriminalized, though purchasing or growing might not be legal still etc.
There might be a grower who has received the appropriate permissions to grow, but then he sells his products to individuals or in a manner that isn't state-approved, and this could be considered 'grey market' activity.
Or there could be a dispensary that is openly operating in public, even charging their customers taxes, but they still don't have the appropriate license yet to operate etc, this has also been referred to as 'grey market' activity.
One of the reasons that politicians told us legalization would be a good idea was that it would take money away from the "bad guys", drive power away from cartels and gangs that are behind black market production, and they could use that money that they would earn from cannabis taxes to fund school programs, hospitals, and other community programs and ventures.
The truth is that it never should have been criminalized to begin with.
Some have even questioned whether or not the legal market will ever eventually completely replace the black market because of how well it still seems to be doing, could that ever be possible? Since those exchanges would be happening outside of the system though, it's impossible to know.
The Legalization Lie
What politicians have been trying to do is eradicate the existing market and replace it with their own, but they've been failing in many ways. With legalization, they want to take funds away that are allegedly being funneled toward organized crime and instead, redirect those funds to an even larger institution of organized crime. This is a group that has been criminalizing and inflicting violence upon patients, veterans, and other cannabis users for decades now.
One Michigan lawmaker recently warned that for those cities that are refusing to embrace cannabis dispensaries that they are simply encouraging black market sales. They've been encouraging and fueling a black market for decades thanks to their all-too-costly war on drugs.
You might think that a sweeping move for legalization would embrace and welcome dispensaries, but then you would be surprised to find out that it could mean the end for many dispensaries that haven't been following the rules. These could be places that patients have come to rely on to obtain their medicine, the market has shown them support by people willingly spending their money there, nobody is forcing them, and they are simply left in the dust even as the new industry unfolds that was supposed to bring them access to what they need.
Ideally, the state should overturn their decree which deems cannabis a prohibited substance and market-related exchanges as illegal activity etc, but they aren't about to give up an opportunity to make billions, or an excuse to trample on natural rights.
