WEBVTT 00:00.080 --> 00:03.160 Hello, this is Mark Thornton from the Mises Institute. 00:03.960 --> 00:09.720 As we begin to think about a new year and our future, please reflect on the mission 00:09.720 --> 00:12.100 and importance of the Mises Institute. 00:12.740 --> 00:18.360 You know that the Institute's wide-ranging work is the vanguard of the ideas of sound 00:18.360 --> 00:21.580 money, private property, world peace, and prosperity. 00:22.320 --> 00:29.320 With your $25 donation or more, you qualify to receive the December Bundle Special, 00:30.260 --> 00:38.360 which includes our President, Tom DiLorenzo's latest work, Axis of Evil, America's Three Worse Presidents. 00:39.080 --> 00:47.920 Just go to the unique link for the Minor Issues Podcast, mises.org, slash minorissues24. 00:48.450 --> 00:53.880 Thank you for your material support of this podcast and the work of the Institute. 00:56.940 --> 01:03.280 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Minor Issues Podcast. I'm Mark Thornton at the Mises 01:03.280 --> 01:09.740 Institute. Well, an intrepid listener asked a very interesting and important question. 01:10.780 --> 01:16.380 Is the black market economy immune from the Fed's inflation? 01:18.380 --> 01:25.620 It would seem that the price of illegal pot or cannabis has been declining or at least steady 01:25.620 --> 01:32.240 for several years now, while legal pot is higher in price. And of course, everything else has 01:32.240 --> 01:38.760 increased in price. We've all been suffering from higher prices, lower quality, and poor service. 01:39.360 --> 01:46.480 So is marijuana the magic elixir for economic performance and a potential cure 01:46.820 --> 01:52.020 for the Fed's inflation? Might it help make America great again? 01:53.080 --> 01:57.920 This excellent question does point to theory that can help sharpen our analysis, 01:58.400 --> 02:06.700 but no, marijuana itself cannot cure the Fed's inflation. However, drug legalization 02:07.140 --> 02:14.940 does reveal a potent force for restoring economic vigor in the economy and improving 02:14.940 --> 02:22.980 our standard of living. America has suffered for more than 60 years from cannabis prohibition 02:24.210 --> 02:30.880 highlighted by the so-called war on drugs in the 1970s and the 1980s. 02:31.650 --> 02:38.440 This has been enormously costly in every respect, and it has been extremely ineffective 02:39.370 --> 02:46.840 as any unbiased person will admit. Historians will no doubt consider this prohibition 02:46.840 --> 02:54.720 one of man's biggest blunders in social policy. Fortunately, in recent years, 02:54.900 --> 03:00.940 citizens have taken control from politicians and bureaucrats, mostly at the state and local 03:00.940 --> 03:10.500 levels, as it has become abundantly clear that marijuana or cannabis does have legitimate uses 03:11.500 --> 03:18.660 and that it is not inherently dangerous to everyone and should therefore not be prohibited 03:19.180 --> 03:26.500 even according to the government's own policy guidelines. The Fed's inflation, of course, 03:26.500 --> 03:34.280 causes prices to rise unevenly throughout the economy, but legalization causes production 03:34.280 --> 03:43.300 and distribution costs to fall and for production to rise. This great expansion of opportunity and 03:43.300 --> 03:50.880 entrepreneurship has put downward pressure on prices even as quality and product variety have 03:50.880 --> 03:59.160 expanded. Of course, all of these businesses face higher costs of inputs due to the Fed's inflation, 03:59.520 --> 04:07.880 plus all the red tape and costs mandated by governments. These superfluous costs and taxes 04:08.540 --> 04:17.080 mean that illegal cannabis is still cheaper and is thriving in the underground economy. 04:17.880 --> 04:24.300 Removing all of this government intervention would mean even lower prices, higher quality, 04:24.920 --> 04:34.760 variety, availability, investment, jobs, profits. Before we get to the general point, 04:35.320 --> 04:42.440 I know that many listeners will be uncomfortable with the idea of a growing and vibrant 04:42.440 --> 04:49.860 cannabis industry running wild, but let's just remind ourselves that legalization has done 04:50.420 --> 04:58.880 just what was promised. One, consumption and the number of consumers is up dramatically 04:59.840 --> 05:05.660 and there is little doubt of increased consumption by the so-called problem consumers. 05:06.580 --> 05:16.220 Two, recreational use has expanded and consumers are better off. Some of this recreational consumption 05:16.220 --> 05:21.840 has siphoned off demand from dangerous products like alcohol and tobacco. 05:23.420 --> 05:32.040 Three, medicinal use has expanded, siphoning off demand from dangerous pharmaceutical drugs, 05:32.490 --> 05:38.880 dangerous pain and sleep drugs, but also for treating conditions associated with cancers 05:39.190 --> 05:46.260 and other maladies. Four, legalization has stimulated an enormous increase 05:46.730 --> 05:54.060 in CBD cannabis products. Those are the ones that don't contain the psychoactive 05:54.700 --> 06:03.980 THC component and are used for a wide variety of conditions. In five, there is also a wide variety 06:03.980 --> 06:14.920 of research projects in the public and private sectors to study the efficiency and safety of 06:14.920 --> 06:20.720 these products. Now with the acknowledgement that there is a much bigger difference between 06:20.720 --> 06:28.700 prohibition and free markets than there is between other interventions such as regulation 06:29.400 --> 06:38.020 and free markets, removing any and all government interventions from an economy will expand 06:38.020 --> 06:46.760 opportunity, production and jobs. Prices will fall and quality, variety and availability 06:47.120 --> 06:55.520 will expand across the board. Some of these fruits were clearly experienced with the targeted 06:55.520 --> 07:03.960 deregulation policies during the first term of President Trump. This clearly shows that the 07:03.960 --> 07:11.540 benefits of legalization, deregulation, and other subtractions from government, 07:12.500 --> 07:17.620 as well as the work of DOGE are virtually unlimited. 07:19.050 --> 07:27.220 Stay tuned for a future episode that explores the cost of our failure to deliver on the promises 07:27.220 --> 07:34.380 of more economic freedom using the historical case of the French Revolution.