2024-11-07
43 分钟Some people want the new cannabis economy to look like the craft-beer movement. Others are hoping to build the Amazon of pot. And one expert would prefer a government-run monopoly. We listen in as they fight it out. (Part four of a four-part series.)
In the recent election, it seemed as though the two parties disagreed on just about economic policies and tax policies, immigration and abortion, the wars in Russia and the Middle east, even garbage.
If this left you feeling exhausted and dispirited and looking for even one sliver of unity, we are here to help.
I think what's fascinating is that Americans, Democrat, Republican, Independent, are all supportive of seeing major cannabis change.
And why does everyone support major cannabis change?
You know, cannabis is quite popular.
It's polling at 64%.
Politicians typically don't take strong positions on things that are so popular.
The popularity of cannabis these days is significant in terms of public support for legalization, in terms of the number of daily users.
Cannabis is even popular among some public health officials who see it as a way to reduce the harms of alcohol.
But as we've been exploring in this series, there are a lot of problems.
The cannabis economy is a mess.
We are way behind with research into the drug's potential risks, especially the risks of the most concentrated forms of the drug.
And there are inconsistencies and contradictions in how individual states have rolled out legalization.
All these problems can be traced back to 2 central number one, cannabis is still illegal on the federal level, and number two, it is still listed under the Controlled Substances act as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no accepted medical use and it has a high potential for abuse and addiction.
But according to the people we've been speaking with, both of these facts are going to change.
And what will happen then?
There's going to be big winners and losers.
So today on Freakonomics Radio, in the fourth and final part of this series, we will try to sort out the cannabis winners and losers.
And we will get crystal clear answers to all of our questions.
Or at least we'll try.