Treat all THC the same. The current two-track hustle is pure hypocrisy, and it is killing the licensed industry while illicit and unregulated hemp operators rake it in. The loophole crowd pushes intoxicating “hemp” vapes and gummies online and in smoke shops with light oversight, bargain taxes, and zero real compliance, then undercuts licensed stores on price and convenience. Meanwhile the legal guys pay for labs, cameras, vault doors, seed-to-sale tracking, zoning fights, and surprise inspections, only to watch customers walk down the block for the same buzz at a discount. We reward rule-breaking and punish compliance, then pretend to be shocked when gray and illicit sellers outnumber legit shops. This is not consumer safety, it is policy theater that props up the loophole market and bleeds the folks trying to do it right.
The Promise vs. The Mess We Built
We were told legalization would end the plug and fund schools. What actually happened in too many states feels like a bait and switch. Legal stores pay for licenses, labs, cameras, build outs, seed to sale systems, and a vault door that costs more than a decent used car. They are boxed in by zoning and local bans. The gray market and the hemp loophole keep humming, shipping gummies and vapes across state lines while licensed shops fight to keep the lights on. The result is predictable. Consumers pick price and convenience. Legal loses the sale and then gets blamed for not being competitive.
The Price Problem That Will Not Go Away
Here is the first blow. Taxes stack up like a bad Jenga tower. You get state, local, and special excise add ons that can push an identical cart 30 to 45 percent higher than what the plug or the loophole market offers. For years the federal tax code made it worse by treating licensed operators like they were not allowed to deduct normal costs of doing business. That turned a tight margin industry into a forced high price industry. Even if federal policy backs off that pressure, the state tax stack can still sink the ship. If you want people to shop legal, stop pricing them out of the store.
The Hemp Loophole That Eats the Legal Market
Here is the second blow. We split the same molecule into two legal worlds. Call it hemp and it can move around the country. Call it marijuana and it is boxed into a single state with far heavier rules. People are not confused about how a gummy feels. They are confused why the law treats that gummy like a toy in one aisle and a controlled substance in the next. You cannot fix that with warning labels and a wink. The rational fix is simple. Treat all THC the same.
Fifty Rulebooks and No Interstate Commerce
Every state made its own maze. None of those mazes connect. No interstate commerce means each market is a tiny island with its own rules and cost structure. Some islands are overbuilt. Some are deserts with no stores at all because the city banned them. That gives the illicit and loophole players the wide open field. The legal operator needs a passport and a lawyer to do anything. The unlicensed truck just drives around it.
Banking That Belongs In A Movie, Not A Modern Industry
Cash piles up. Cards get spotty. Credit is almost mythical. Even basic accounts can cost four figures a month. Count the twenties in the back room and then hire extra security to protect the twenties. That is not how you scale. It is how you burn out founders, scare workers, and invite crime.
Social Equity That Too Often Stalled At The Starting Line
We promised ownership and reinvestment. Too many equity applicants got paperwork purgatory and predatory partnerships. When you make compliance expensive and capital scarce, you hand the keys to the best funded players and call that a meritocracy. It is not. It is a filter that removes the very people legalization was supposed to elevate.
Consumer Safety Without The Theater
People want clean products and honest labels. They want to know the dosage is real and the warnings are not a joke. You do not get that by playing molecule musical chairs. You get it by writing one national cannabinoid framework and applying it to every product that contains THC or CBD for human consumption. The standard should be clear testing, clear labeling, child resistant packaging, age gates, and plain language marketing rules. That protects consumers better than a patchwork ever will.
The Straightfix: A Blueprint That Actually Lets Legal Win
Here is how we fix this without fairy dust.
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Treat all THC the same. End the two track system that blesses one supply chain while strangling the other. Write one product standard for all intoxicating cannabinoids, natural or synthesized, sold for human consumption. If it gets you high, it follows the same rulebook.
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Right size taxes. Set tax rates that let legal beat or match the loophole and illicit markets on price. That does not mean zero taxes. It means smart taxes that do not punish compliance.
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Create a national market with guardrails. Allow regulated interstate commerce so operators can achieve scale, meet demand more efficiently, and stop playing whack a mole with 50 supply chains.
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Normalize banking and payments. Give financial institutions a clear safe harbor. Let legal stores accept cards, access credit, and pay normal fees instead of protection money disguised as account maintenance.
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Level up enforcement where it matters. Focus on unlicensed high volume sellers who ignore age gates, ignore testing, and ride the loophole wave. Do not swat the licensed operator over paperwork typos while ignoring the warehouse down the street.
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Make social equity real. Pair startup capital with technical assistance, and give equity operators a lane that is not a bureaucratic demolition derby. Measure ownership and survival, not press releases.
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Write rules people can read. Plain language standards. Clear timelines. Predictable inspections. Digital portals that actually work. Compliance should feel like filing a tax return, not solving a riddle.
What Success Looks Like In The Real World
You walk into a licensed shop and the out the door price does not shock you. The menu is deep because interstate supply lets stores carry the products people want, not just the products that happened to get a permit inside the state border. Labels match lab results. Edibles hit like the package says, not like a roulette wheel. Your favorite shop pays normal banking fees and swipes a normal card. The owner hires more staff instead of more guards. New entrepreneurs can launch without selling their souls to a predatory contract. Consumers stop rolling the dice with mystery brands from a website that lists no phone number and no address.
Common Objections And Straight Answers
Objection. If we treat all THC the same, we are going to see an explosion in youth use.
Answer. Youth access is about age gates and enforcement, not about what paragraph of a farm bill the molecule hides under. One rulebook with strict retail controls protects minors better than a patchwork that lets loophole sellers operate in the shadows.
Objection. A national market will crush small local brands.
Answer. The current model is already crushing small local brands. Local companies survive when they can ship to more customers, share manufacturing, and access normal capital. Interstate commerce plus fair taxes gives the craft operator a real shot.
Objection. Hemp farmers will get wiped out.
Answer. Hemp agriculture does not disappear when we treat all THC the same. It becomes a lawful input to regulated products. Farmers who want to grow cannabinoid rich crops can contract into a transparent, compliant supply chain instead of betting the farm on gray zones.
Objection. This sounds like more federal power.
Answer. It is not about more power. It is about clear standards for products that cross state lines and end up in your body. States will still license and inspect. The national framework sets the floor so we stop playing word games with chemistry.
The Quiet Collapse Is Not Inevitable
We are not doomed to lose to the plug. We chose a system that rewards noncompliance and punishes compliance. We can choose the opposite. Lower the price gap. Clean up the labels. Make banking normal. Let legal brands reach customers at the speed of demand. When you do that, the illicit and loophole markets lose their superpower. Price plus convenience becomes a legal advantage, not an underground one.
What You Can Do Right Now
If you are a consumer, shop legal when the price makes sense and tell your lawmakers you want taxes that do not gouge. If you are in the industry, share real numbers with your city council and your statehouse. Show them how taxes and delays translate into layoffs and closures. If you are a policymaker, stop pretending the molecule changes when the label changes. Treat all THC the same and write rules that a smart eighth grader can understand.
Bottom Line
We can keep feeding the loophole economy. Or we can build a system that is honest about chemistry and serious about safety. The solution is not mystical. Treat all THC the same, set fair taxes, normalize banking, allow interstate commerce, and hold everyone to one clear standard. Do that and legal wins. Do anything else and we will keep watching good operators die while mystery carts keep showing up on doorsteps.
If you want this argument on every desk in Congress, hit share. Send it to the person in your group chat who still says legal is a ripoff. Legal should win. Make the rules let it.
