Thursday, April 22, 2010
How Big Is The Marijuana Market?
This special report from CNBC analyzes the marijuana market through a simple demand and supply model. The demand is estimated to be in the range of $10-40 billion a year measured through the average grams of marijuana in a joint (price ranging from $5-$20 per gram). Supply side was measured based on total kilograms of marijuana seized during the past year and this estimation falls in the range of $15-$17 billion. Overall, the model estimates a $40 billion marijuana market. Tax revenue on tobacco lies in the range of $17 billion and marijuana legalization would produce a similar tax revenue in the range of $16 to $20 billion. Although there are many other facts to consider when entering the debate to legalize marijuana, the numbers are very optimistic in showing comparable tax revenues to tobacco and the economists interviewed believe this number could be higher because of the difficulty in measuring marijuana demand.
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5 comments:
I think it makes perfect sense for state governments to legalize marijuana for revenue. Especially states that are struggling.
I agree with Kevin. Watch the movie "The Union" it is very interesting, and shows the history of marijuana.
I think that its clearly economical for some states to legalize marijuana and believe that its benefits outweigh the problems that come with the use of marijuana.
Although this legalization of marijuana looks like it can generate some kind of revenue, it brings about and raises a lot of ethical questions. Just like in any case, there is always two sides to this question as to if marijuana should be legalized to generate revenue. This quite an interesting one and I think the decision will always be different across.
Whether or not I think marijuana should be legalized is not that important. What I think is important is all the money and resources wasted on trying to bust marijuana growers and users. All it does is clog up the legal systems and take priorities away from real threats.
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