Lawmakers in Colorado and Washington are attempting to pass a bill that places a tax on marijuana that could generate billions of dollars in revenue for their respective states.
Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis told Politico that Colorado could make tens of millions a year from selling taxed marijuana in dispensaries.
Those millions could turn into billions if the proposed cannabis tax is approved. Polis said that the increase in revenue could put a “substantial dent in needed school improvements, particularly in poorer districts.”
He also stressed the dangers of imposing a tax on marijuana too quickly. Pot smokers could potentially revert back to independent dealers if the cost became too expensive.
“You have to know more about the structure of the demand curve, which we don’t have any data on because this is black-market; it’s all conjecture,” said Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, the co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.
Dale Gieringer, director of the California National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, estimated that federal legalization of marijuana would rake in revenues of at least $1.2 billion to California.
Gieringer’s study determines that a sales tax would generate an additional $50 per ounce of marijuana purchased.
Some believe we should just tax marijuana the same way we tax alcohol and tobacco. Jeffrey Miron, a scholar at the Cato Institute, suggests that a tax of this nature would generate nearly $6.5 billion in tax revenue with about $2 billion going to the states and $4.3 billion for the federal government.
Either way, all research would agree that we need marijuana to save this economy. Like, now.
Sean Levinson | Elite.
