Regulation Cannabis as a Temptation Good: Learning from Other Vices

1. Regulating Cannabis as a Temptation Good: Learning from Other Vices
Comment by David T. Courtwright, dcourtwr@unf.edu
The Cannabis Science and Policy Summit, NYU Maron Institute of Urban Management

2. 2014 WSJ Poll:
Which of Four Substances Most Harmful?
• 49 percent tobacco
• 24 percent alcohol
• 15 percent sugar
• 8 percent marijuana

3. Temptation Goods
• “Marijuana might better be described as a performance-degrading
drug and, more dangerously, as a temptation commodity with
habituating tendencies.”
– Jonathan P. Caulkins, “The Real Dangers of Marijuana,” National Affairs
issue 26 (Winter 2016): 22.
• “’Temptation goods’ … are more prone than the general run of
activities to generate unwanted habits and to cause some
consumers to make choices they will predictably later regret.”
– 2016 Cannabis Science and Policy Summit conference program

4. Gothenburg System
• Fixed-profit public trust
• Private distillation banned
• Shareholder monopoly profits capped at 5 percent
• Additional revenues went to community projects
• Publicans received fixed salaries
• Publicans enforced rules, e.g., no treating, no vice on
premises
• Sales to minors or intoxicated persons prohibited

5. Established
1908, still
in business

6. What Might Goth-Pot Look Like?
• Monopoly on legal production
• Limited advertising
• Retail outlets limited in number and location
• Cannabis products limited in potency
• Sales of non-intoxicating food and beverages
• Staff working on salary, not commission
• Sales for off-premise use based on personal
consumption licenses with quantity limits

7. Dr. Willis P. Butler,
1888-1991; his Shreveport
narcotic clinic operated
from 1919 to 1923.

10. WSJ, April 18, 2014

11. Regulating Cannabis as a Temptation Good: Learning from Other Vices
Comment by David T. Courtwright, dcourtwr@unf.edu
The Cannabis Science and Policy Summit, NYU Maron Institute of Urban Management