On Election Day, voters in Colorado
passed a ballot measure legalizing marijuana, setting the stage for
a new, legal commercial marijuana market in the state. But as
Leonard Gilroy and Harris Kenny observe, that market will only
materialize if legalization is done right. Indeed, even if the
federal government allows the state to go forward unmolested—a big
“if” given the Obama administration’s demonstrated zeal to bust
medicinal marijuana shops—there are a number of regulatory and tax
issues that Colorado must first settle to create a functioning
marijuana market. This won’t be easy, Gilroy and Kenny write, but
it is vitally important that policy makers make the right calls
lest the whole legalization movement get derailed.

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