Over the last decade, eighteen US states have implemented their own sets of regulations to form a recreational cannabis industry. Now there's a patchwork of legalization, many farms have failed, product prices are high, and much of legal weed has fallen short of initial expectations. So what is the current economic state of the legal and illegal cannabis markets in the US? Where has state cannabis regulation gone wrong? How could it do better? And why is legal pot so dang expensive?!

In this episode, host Brit Smith talks to leading UC Davis agricultural economist Dr. Robin Goldstein and UC Davis Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics Daniel Sumner about their new book “Can Legal Weed Win? The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics” (University of California Press). Dan and Robin give Brit their expert insights into cannabis as an agricultural product, how new legal markets can thrive, whether they think federal legalization might help or hurt the legal weed industry, and where the US can expect its legal and illegal cannabis markets to go from here.

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