Ducks and Economics

Today we will analyze the New Approach Missouri medical marijuana Constitutional proposal’s proposal for licensing marijuana cultivators. On page 6 of the NAM IP we find:

On Page 7 we find

The population of Missouri is almost 6,100,000 people. Under the most restrictive setting of this proposal, there would roughly 60 cultivation licenses allocated to applicants. Since New Approach Missouri specifies that up to 3 licenses can be held by a single entity, it is plausible that 20 entities could hold all the cultivation licenses for Missouri.

In 2016, then President of the Board for New Approach Missouri Mike Kielty sent a set of  contracts to multiple entities who were being solicited to fund NAM’s 2016 ballot campaign. The contract included these provisions:

It’s beyond question that the 2016 New Approach Missouri medical marijuana campaign (which failed) attempted to create a non-competitive oligopoly environment for stakeholders interested in acquiring marijuana licenses through the passage of the New Approach legislation.

It’s worth asking if the 2018 New Approach Missouri marijuana campaign is using similar tactics and what precisely they’re promising their donors.