Mr. “Worlds far away”, please let me introduce Mr. “Natural experiment in heavy-handed regulation”.

I have multiple interests on this blog. As is extremely obvious, I have been captivated by the energy revolution created by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Have also been fascinated by the wide open frontiers of education, publishing, private space exploration, energy, and technology in general.

There are at least two other threads. First, dark worlds far away  I’ll never visit, such as selling drugs and sundry other illegal stuff on the net (called “dark nets”). Another thread is the watching how much heavy-handed regulation is dragging down the newly legal industry of recreational marijuana.

Just like the closing scenes of Ghostbusters, those two threads have touched each other and merged.

A commenter on a recent post on the regulation experiment drew me in to the issue of rapidly dropping prices, and then wondering how marijuana farmers can’t make money at a wholesale price of $700 an ounce, or around $11,000 a pound. Then I wondered what’s happened to retail prices of this market I’ll never visit.

So, my next post will explore the dark world of wholesale and retail marijuana sales in the recreational market in order to ponder the effect of regulatory strangulation on supply and demand.

Mr. “Worlds far away I’ll never visit” had a pleasant first meeting with Mr. “Natural experiment in heavy-handed regulation”. You may see the result of their visit momentarily.

Update: Well, momentarily turned into six hours. You can see the post here.