Marijuana Delivery Services: They're Great

But I’m not sure we need newspapers writing about them. The Hartford Courant has a fairly positive take [8] on New York City’s thriving underground marijuana industry. Let’s hope it doesn’t provoke the wrong people.

In a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door - groceries, dry cleaning, Chinese food - pot smokers are increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer satisfaction.

An untold number of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York are having their pot delivered to their homes instead of visiting drug dens or hanging out on street corners.

This enduring business is testament to the fact that marijuana’s popularity reaches far beyond the groups stereotypically associated with it. If you have your own address and can afford inflated prices, you can enjoy marijuana without being exposed to all the horrible outcomes made possible by prohibition.

So it should come as no surprise that the delivery service model is growing in popularity. Frankly, I doubt the authorities have much interest in getting involved, other than to seize a few million in assets here and there. And there’s surely more than a handful of powerful New Yorkers who definitely don’t want anyone interfering with this.

As a reformer, I’m intrigued by what’s been accomplished in New York. The specter of Amsterdam-style coffeeshops is still a bit much for voters, as we saw in Nevada this week. And medical clubs in California have had trouble with neighbors [9] who sometimes can’t get comfortable with the idea of a local club, even if they’re supportive of Prop 215 in principle. Delivery might be the best way to address the needs of marijuana consumers without annoying other people.

We should regulate it.