That’s not a bad comparison. Especially when you remember that the American beer market is dominated by a few large corporations that work hard to limit the access that smaller players have to the market, and selling homebrew is illegal without a federal license. I expect the market for marijuana to go the same way.
Given the disproportionate market reach that big corporations are likely to have, maybe they won’t need to use commercial law to discourage informal competition. But I’m willing to bet that they’ll invest quite a lot of money in lobbying for laws designed to make sure that distribution of home-grown weed doesn’t become too easy or convenient.
They don’t need to completely eliminate the competition, they just need to arrange things so that a majority of people will find it easier to reach for a pack of Boehner’s Buzz Bud at the convenience store than go through the trouble of growing their own or buying from their next-door neighbor.
