The marijuana industry does not need higher education.
Consider where the industry stood 20 years ago. Federal authorities menaced suppliers with national defense (Coast Guard) and paramilitary resources at the border. Anyone active in the supply chain faced severe consequences and loss of liberty. Even more dangerous was the possibility that one among hundreds of thousands of local police officers might discover marijuana suppliers and imprison them.
The last of these risks is now fading. State and local authorities are increasingly forbidden from interfering in the marijuana trade. Connecticut has joined the ranks of states where marijuana is largely decriminalized at the local level.
Supply of marijuana in the United States was robust even when federal, state and local resources were actively undermining the industry. One report estimates black market sales of marijuana at $46.4 billion in 2016. The industry figured out how to make marijuana available even under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. It therefore stands to reason that, without any help from higher education, supply will naturally expand as state and local barriers fall.
Higher education was not a prerequisite to supplying marijuana during the era of extreme prohibition. Mexico is, historically, one of the most important black market suppliers of marijuana in the United States. Its government has the lowest educational spending per student within the Organization for Economic Cooperation…
