Find out why cannabis users should look for licensed dispensaries.

Seventy-eight million Americans live in a state with a legal recreational cannabis market, and many more have access to medical marijuana. In purely economic terms, the movement to legalize cannabis throughout the United States has been a smashing success.

However, cannabis users often find themselves in an ethical and economic dilemma. Should the average marijuana user purchase legal cannabis from licensed dispensaries or continue to buy illegal black market weed?

But I Thought Marijuana Was Legal Now!

Marijuana is legal in states like Colorado, California, and Maryland, but it is highly regulated. Whenever a government regulates a product, a black market pops up in response. In the case of cannabis, this black market already existed for decades.

Each state licenses certain dispensaries and obliges them to report sales to regulators through a seed-to-sale tracking system like METRC. This reporting often happens automatically when budtenders scan products through their point-of-sale software solution.

Marijuana that doesn’t originate from a licensed cultivator is still illegal. There is no way to ensure legal cannabis compliance or cannabis safety with black market products. However, some people still buy illegal cannabis, while others choose to exclusively purchase their cannabis from licensed dispensaries.

Pros & Cons of Legal Cannabis

The one advantage that illegal, black market cannabis has over legal cannabis is its price. Black market cannabis is almost always cheaper than its legal counterpart. This makes sense because a HIPAA-compliant dispensary with employees on the payroll and a brick-and-mortar store to maintain will necessarily have a higher overhead than your buddy Jay from college.

But there are plenty of pros for legal cannabis use:

• Sustaining the Market. Most state lawmakers are not marijuana evangelists. They bought into the economic power of legal cannabis, which only makes sense if people purchase legal marijuana. Without this, there is no way to guarantee legalization remains viable long-term.
• Job Creation. Cultivators have to hire agricultural specialists. Processors have to hire chemistry specialists. Dispensaries have to hire retail specialists. Every step of the legal marijuana supply chain creates jobs and helps local economies grow.
• Accountability. Seed-to-sale tracking improves transparency across the supply chain, ensuring that cultivators, processors, and distributors are accountable for playing their part to guarantee safe products, responsible distribution, and data security.
• Tax Revenue. This is the main reason why some lawmakers tolerate a legal cannabis market in the first place. Cannabis consumers enjoy a privileged political status as long as their purchases generate income for cash-hungry state institutions.
• Lower Costs and Taxes for Medical Patients. Medical cannabis patients can typically get better prices and a lenient tax break when purchasing medical marijuana, even in states that have legalized recreational adult use.

Choosing a retail dispensary that is operating with a compliant Point of Sale like ezGreen Compliance

Cannabis users are in a better place than ever.  Choosing a dispensary using a point of sale like ezGreen Compliance will ensure that all inventory of products are lab tested and have an active certificate of authenticity.  This will ensure the testing all products for metals, pesticides, fungus and any other toxic materials that folks should not be exposed to.  By purchasing Cannabis products from an unlicensed dispensary of from the street, the product have no guarantee they have been tested and may contain dangerous substances.

Every Cannabis Consumer Can Do Their Part

Cannabis users are in a better place than ever. People who would have faced jail sentences just a few short years ago can now consume cannabis safely and participate in a legitimate cannabis culture that spans both cities and generations. Maintaining this environment requires participating in the legal framework that sustains it.