Vox

The slew of illicit shops padlocked by police on the local news, and the rise of organized-crime-driven operations in suburban neighborhoods, have the potential to alarm Americans who have only just begun to support the notion of legalization. And it could provide fuel for those who are opposed to it.

A growing number of reputable sources within medicine and the scientific community are already sounding the alarm about increasingly potent products sickening users. There’s almost no doubt that at least some of those products are illicit and unregulated. As a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently noted, the patchwork laws from state to state have contributed to the risks.

In that way, the black market could backfire against the very legalization movement that has allowed it to come out of the shadows.