RAND: Curtailing illicit pot market will take ‘years’
It will likely take years for Massachusetts to put a dent in the illicit marijuana market, according to a researcher who found that to be the case in Washington state.
Three years after state-licensed cannabis stores in Washington opened in July 2014, roughly half of the recreational and medical marijuana consumed by residents was still coming from the illicit market, said Beau Kilmer, director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
“You’re not going to eliminate the illicit market overnight,” Kilmer said. “It’s going to take years.”
On Wednesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts, both pledged to continue to crack down on weed violations, including “smurfing” — buying the maximum allowable amount of marijuana from multiple dispensaries for the purpose of selling it illegally, often across state lines.
Lelling said his office continues to police interstate transportation of marijuana, along with incoming or outgoing shipments of cash and use of the federal banking system.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said the opioid epidemic remains a focus, but agents do not ignore pot violations.
The state Cannabis Control Commission and Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office on Tuesday said they are looking to create a multiagency task force to, among other things, find ways to blunt “smurfs” and “loopers” — people who make multiple purchases of marijuana in one day at the same dispensary.
The commission’s adult-use regulations prohibit a marijuana retailer from knowingly selling more than one ounce of marijuana or its dry-weight equivalence to a customer within a single day.
Cannabis Control Commission statistics show that, based on the previous week’s distribution, the most popular marijuana products were:
buds (128,728 sold) raw pre-rolls (60,798) infused edibles (53,391) vape products (25,321) concentrates (20,134) Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said it’s no surprise that herbal cannabis products remain dominant in the Massachusetts market — something that’s consistent with national trends, he said.
“Historically, adults have most frequently consumed cannabis in its herbal form,” Armentano said in an email. “Herbal cannabis contains a broad spectrum of cannabinoids, is associated with more rapid onset and less variation of drug effect (compared to other cannabis formulations, such as edibles), and is also easier for users to selftritrate. Herbal cannabis also tends to be less potent than some alternative formulations, like concentrates.”