Cheap Dope
That's Matt Yglesias, who checks in
with a silly article on how inexpensive pot would be if it were legal:
That implies costs of less than $20 per pound for high-grade sensimilla and less than $5 a pound for mid-grade stuff. Another way of looking at it, suggested by California NORML Director Dale Gieringer, is that we should expect legal pot to cost about the same amount as “other legal herbs such as tea or tobacco,” something perhaps “100 times lower than the current prevailing price of $300 per ounce—or a few cents per joint.”
This would make pot far and away the cheapest intoxicant on the market, absolutely blowing beer and liquor out of the water. Joints would be about as cheap as things that are often treated as free. Splenda packets, for example, cost 2 or 3 cents each when purchased in bulk.
Completely missing the point. In fact, alcohol is very cheap to produce; the reason it costs so much is largely the taxes the government throws on it. And don't think for a moment that the government won't impose substantial surcharges on marijuana, especially since a) the consumers are used to the high prices; and b) the feds and the states need the money.
