BLACK-MARKET EARNINGS

So who's benefiting from the federal crackdown on medical-marijuana
dispensaries? Why, black-market pot growers and dealers, that's who.

According to a recent report by the Center for Investigative
Reporting's California Watch, prices for high-grade, outdoor-grown
marijuana, after slumping precipitously in 2010, have risen by 20 to
40 percent since four U.S. attorneys began cracking down on growers
and dispensaries and threatening local agencies-like the Chico City
Council and city staff-with prosecution.

For growers willing to risk arrest by doing business on the black
market-and there are plenty of them-this is welcome news. Prices that
were as low as $1,000 a pound have risen as high as $2,500 a pound,
making business potentially much more profitable.

That's good for these growers and dealers, as long as they don't get
caught, but for legitimate medical-marijuana suppliers and their
customers, it's a disaster. For the patients, it's become harder and
more expensive to obtain their medicine. And for the legitimate
medical-marijuana growers, it's a case of misplaced priorities that
threaten to put them out of business.

As one Mendocino County medical-marijuana grower put it, "Prices are
going up, but the people who will cash in are the men hiding in the
mountains. If this continues, the people who are trying to follow
medical-marijuana laws won't get anything because they'll be out of
business, thanks to the feds."

All the more reason for state lawmakers to get off their duffs and
bring sense and consistency to medical-marijuana laws.