A new book coauthored by two economists explains the economics of legalized marijuana are not very lucrative. The regulations for selling legal weed are so onerous that illegal marijuana sells for half the price of the highly regulated legal product when competing for the same customers. In fact, the regulatory maze is such that in most states where cannabis is legal aspiring distributors hire consultants to assist with the application process. Indeed, the people in the cannabis industry making the most (legal) money are the consultants and lobbyists.
Category: News and Events
The Battle of Waterloo Created a Public Health Crisis: the Solution was Fertilizer
Last Saturday was the 207th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, fought on Sunday, June 18, 1815. It was the decisive battle that ended Napoleon Bonaparte’s imperial ambitions for good. The battle was the culmination of nearly 20 years of conflict in Europe. As you would imagine, it created a public health crisis. An estimated 50,000 casualties, dead, dying and wounded were left on the battlefield when it was over. Some diseases can be transmitted from the dead to the living. According to the World Health Organization:
- Tuberculosis can be acquired if the bacillus is aerosolized – residual air in lungs exhaled, fluid from lungs spurted up through the nose or mouth during handling of the corpse.
- Bloodborne viruses can be transmitted via direct contact of non-intact skin or mucous membrane from splashing of blood or body fluid or from injury from bone fragments and needles.
- Gastrointestinal (GI) infections can easily be transmitted from faeces leaked from dead bodies. Transmission occurs via the faecal–oral route through direct contact with the body, soiled clothes or contaminated vehicles or equipment. GI infections can also be spread as a result of contamination of the water supply with dead bodies.
What Sweden Got Right
Swedish students under the age of 16 didn’t miss a single day of school to COVID closure and were never masked. According to this study:
- No COVID-19 related learning loss in reading in Swedish primary school students.
- The proportion of students with weak reading skills did not increase during the pandemic.
- Students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds were not especially affected.
HT: Committee to Unleash Prosperity
Bait and Switch on Medicare Drug Price Controls
All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Democrats’ (reconciliation) bill would have diverted $266 billion in Medicare spending to pay for other programs if passed into law. Taking a quarter of a trillion dollars out of an already-stressed Medicare program would be a disaster for seniors….
reforms championed by the Trump administration … would have required negotiated savings between PBMs and drugmakers to pass directly to seniors by accounting for the rebate when determining the cost-sharing amount. Currently, patients often end up paying costs based on the sticker price of medications rather than the price that has been negotiated between the manufacturers and PBMs.