"When Capitalism Meets Cannabis", artículo del New York Times

El artículo cuenta cómo es la realidad del mercado legal de la marihuana medicinal en EE.UU., curiosidades y dificultades que trae este experimento de regulación de la actividad. Algunos párrafos interesantes:

One of the odder experiments in the recent history of American capitalism is unfolding here in the Rockies: the country’s first attempt at fully regulating, licensing and taxing a for-profit marijuana trade. In California, medical marijuana dispensary owners work in nonprofit collectives, but the cannabis pioneers of Colorado are free to pocket as much as they can — as long as they stay within the rules.

What happens when pot goes legit? How does the government establish rules that allow the industry to flourish, but not run rampant? And given that this is all about medicine, what about doctors, some of whom have turned medical marijuana consultations into a highly lucrative specialty?

The marijuana merchants in Colorado, like trailblazers in any business, had to make a lot of basic decisions when they started. Among them: What should a for-profit medical marijuana dispensary look like, anyway? State law says that the cannabis has to be in “limited access areas,” but as far as interior decorating mandates go, that’s it. The marijuana merchants in Colorado, like trailblazers in any business, had to make a lot of basic decisions when they started. Among them: What should a for-profit medical marijuana dispensary look like, anyway? State law says that the cannabis has to be in “limited access areas,” but as far as interior decorating mandates go, that’s it.

If there is a historical precedent for what’s now happening in Colorado, it could be the 1920s and the era of Prohibition. During America’s dry age, the federal alcohol ban carved out an exemption for medicinal use, and doctors nationwide suddenly discovered they could bolster their incomes by writing liquor prescriptions.

Link: artículo completo.