Oregon’s flooded recreational pot market a cautionary tale: economists
VANCOUVER — As marijuana farmers in Oregon say a flood of supply is killing their businesses less than three years after recreational cannabis was legalized, economists say it’s a warning to Canada.
Stephen Easton, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, says large fluctuations in price and supply are bound to happen when you create a legal market where an illegal market already exists.
“There is no reason to think it won’t happen here as well. In a broader sense, we are adding legal production to an already robust illegal production,” Easton said.
“Consumption may simply not increase in proportion to our ability to grow.”