If Marijuana Production Were Legal: Projected Tax Revenues, by State

SloshSpot
November 17th, 2009

Love it or hate it, people smoke marijuana - lots of it. In some states marijuana consumption and possession have been decriminalized, and even legalized for medicinal purposes. But, have you ever wondered how large the economics of Marijuana were? Us too. As a result ,have decided to put together this graphic, which illustrates the popularity of marijuana consumption, the federal tax dollars spent to keep marijuana illegal, and the possible tax revenues that could be generated if marijuana production were legalized and taxed like any other agricultural product. It is especially interesting, with regards to the Great Recession:

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Comment by Skekzyz on November 19, 2012 at 12:22am: 1. Marijuana is a slang term based in racism.

2. The buds of the female plant are only 1 resource that Cannabis can offer, food, fuel, and fiber are also very desirable sustainable resources of this plant.

3. I don't ever want to pay a single fucking penny of taxes to this criminal government, or any other criminal government, for having, using, or growing this plant. (and Jack Herer will back me up on that, look him up on youtube)

Comment by Robert Doyle SR on December 2, 2011 at 6:01pm: The Federal Drug War on Americans is not stopping the demand nor supply side. The obvious driver of availability is highlighted by the seizure amounts posted by the DEA, & other Fed & State Agencies.With trillions of dollers at stake for illegal marketing , there will never be a way to curb the imports nor homegrown cannabis.

Who benefits by keeping cannabis illegal is purely a federal driven effort to keep cash monies in the dark. This is simple to realize from an unemotional unvested analysis. THIMK people, re-elect no-one in 2012. Keep changing out politicians till 2020. Then we can reasses the chnges and see more clearly what the problem was. Right now, the problem just is, for over 70 yrs.

Comment by Maria De Wind on June 7, 2011 at 11:23pm: IMHO growing your own is fairly easy when legal, and if the plant is legal growing your own should be legal and tax free too.

Problem with many proposal I've seen is they expect to tax it as high as liquor or add "special" taxes as they do with tobacco and THAT is only bound to create a black market and perpetuate many of the current problems created with prohibition.

States should keep taxing as low as they do for whatever other agricultural produce they tax and let revenues grow from volume trading

Comment by truth on May 12, 2010 at 5:34am: Davidicke.com linked to this today Mark.

Comment by Marklar on November 19, 2009 at 8:44pm: Well, it's all academic really. Kinda depends on how heavily you want to tax it, since nobody is doing it yet the data is speculative at best. It would be a lot of freaking money and a redress to a huge ongoing travesty in any case.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on November 18, 2009 at 1:20pm: The tax revenue is about 30-40 times what they project in that chart for all 50 states. The revenue for cali alone is about 14 billion by most projections, the us in total might be 40-50+ billion dollars at current value before deflation.

Comment by youhavetoforgiveme on November 17, 2009 at 6:11pm: ...added benefits....

Cops would have more time for chasing VIOLENT crime....jails/prisons could be emptied for more VIOLENT offenders...

Who opposes this? Not Congress....

....the mob....