Schneider, Dan. “Pot Economics: What’s the Future of the American Marijuana Market“. Dollarsandsense.org. Dollars & Sense, Mar./Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Jul. 2015.
“Pot Economics: What’s the Future of the American Marijuana Market.” by Dan Schneider is an article that discusses the controversy of the economic benefits of marijuana legalization. This source is important to the controversy as it explores the various points and options that could be taken from legalizing marijuana. In the article Schneider highlights certain aspects such as the illegal market, how it would be grown and the legal commercialization of marijuana.
Schneider seems to be a credible source as the article is full of different points all backed up by reliable sources. He includes a source such as the trade journal Medical Marijuana Business Daily to bring up the potential of what the market could look like. Schneider, although a freelance writer, is part of the Dollar and Sense Collective. Moreover, Schneider is not passionately involved with the whole marijuana scene but seems to argue for many aspects of the legalization, such as the failure of the Drug War and the giant stimulation of marijuana to the economy. One citation that Schneider uses is the article “The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars wasted on Racially Biased Arrests” sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union. Furthermore, I believe that Schneider is a credible source as he never presents a one sided argument. He is able argue while acknowledging some questions to the controversy such as noting that while a source says that the marijuana industry can become a “46 billion dollar industry” that other’s say it could anywhere between “10 billion to 40 billion.” The text is also found in an appropriate place, an economic website. The website would most likely be respected for it’s economic analysis instead of having a natural bias towards something.
In his article, Schneider questions the possibility of Colorado’s and Washington’s legalization opening the door for other states to legalize it. One concern that Schneider describes is the importation of marijuana in which he notes that Uruguay who legalize the use of marijuana and selling it for 1$ a gram as opposed to the United States in which it is closer to 15$ a gram. Moreover, Schneider brings up the point made when he cited Steve DeAngelo, co-founder of Oaklands’ Harborside Health Center, that it will come to a point where where marijuana would just be sold by “indifferent cashiers” instead of specialized dispensers. The main take away that Schneider makes is what will happen when marijuana becomes more legalized in other places not if. He encourages independent sellers, non-profits and oriented organizations to jump on the cannabis bandwagon.
Schneider is able to build up credibility for argument through various ways. He first appeals to his audience, he alludes to a possibility of legalizing marijuana but doesn’t deviate from the main reason of the website, economics. He also covers question the audience would be wondering such how would the money part work by citing that percentages that both Colorado and Washington are using for their selling. Furthermore, Schneider backs up his argument by dropping big names such as Jamen Shively and Vicente Fox who opened their own weed shop; weed magazine High Times also started its own privately own equity fund. Schneider also adds credibility by bring up Brian Laoraungroch who was trying to use the incoming “green rush” to collect funds in 2013 to which it is conceded that many people will want to jump on board for the money. Although arguing the economic benefits of marijuana legalization, Schneider is able to put a level field of information from many credible sources, historical analysis and statistics. The sources being organizations like the ACLU, the historical analysis is the effects of prohibition from 1919-1933 and statistics about the money around marijuana.