Tuesday, February 1, 2022
"Bigger is Not Better: Preventing Monopolies in the National Cannabis Market"
The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper available via SSRN and authored by Shaleen Title. (Shaleen Title served as one of five inaugural commissioners of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission from 2017 to 2020, and has been serving as the Distinguished Cannabis Policy Practitioner in Residence at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.) Here is the abstract for this paper:
It is a crucial and vulnerable moment for the future of the cannabis market. While states are making historic progress creating paths for small businesses and disenfranchised groups, larger companies are expanding, consolidating, and lobbying for licensing rules to create or maintain oligopolies. Federal legalization will only accelerate the power grab already happening with new, larger conglomerates openly expressing interest. Left unchecked, this scramble for market share threatens to undermine public health and safety and undo bold state-level efforts to build an equitable cannabis marketplace. This paper argues for intentionally applying well-developed antitrust principles to federal cannabis reform now, before monopolization of the market takes place, and offers eight concrete policy recommendations.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/marijuana_law/2022/02/bigger-is-not-better-preventing-monopolies-in-the-national-cannabis-market.html