Colorado's marijuana industry a 'surreal' success

In 48 other states in the US, members of an organization growing hundreds of cannabis plants under one roof would be arrested by state or local police and charged with serious felonies. Under Colorado state law, such behavior is perfectly legal, so long as it conforms to Amendment 20 and/or Amendment 64 to the Colorado Constitution, and the subsequent statutory and/or regulatory requirements on the cannabis industry.

The result is surreal. You can walk into a dispensary and purchase marijuana or request a tour of a nursery or farm that openly grows a product in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. In the coming months some of us here at Brookings will be researching the new marijuana industry, not as advocates, but as social scientists, interested in how our federal system comes to terms with statewide decisions to legalize a substance that is illegal in the rest of the country, and how states implement those policy changes.

Regardless of one’s personal feelings on the issue, Colorado has determined (and within bounds, the federal government has allowed) the construction of a legal, recreational, and highly regulated market by which consumers can purchase a vast array of cannabis products. And business is booming.

The term “marijuana industry” evokes very distinct images. It may be an image of a stoner growing plants in his basement or an obscure corner of acreage. It could be a high school student selling baggies of product from his car in a parking lot. Images harken back to Drug-Free America commercials with the rough looking, strung out drug dealer in an urban setting.

The Colorado model flies in the face of the stereotypes. . The legal market in Colorado, from professional grow operations to medical dispensaries to recreational dispensaries, looks nothing like street corner drug operation. These are professional businesses that are innovative and scientific. They bring black market lessons to the new, white market, while using tools of agriculture, engineering, science, manufacturing, and business to advance an industrial effort.