Mary Jane

Regular reader likely recalls some of these missives discussing the wisdom (mostly, lack of it) of public financing of sports arenas, lotteries, and the like. The issue, from a profitability point of view, is: who is the market? If the market is merely inhabitants of the jurisdiction paying for the McGuffin, odds are not good that profitability will ensue, simply because the inhabitants will have substituted buying sports tickets for buying movie tickets, or the like. The only way for such expenditures to be net-net positive is if the market is largely composed of 'aliens'. Well, guess what? The same is true of selling weed.

And so, we find the RRW in the Mountain West wringing their hands. Seems Oregon has legalized Mary Jane, but Idaho refuses, so all those proper Idahoans are running across the border to get them some weed. And the tax man in Salem is just saying, 'thank you very much'. Aliens make for a profitable market.