AlterNet: Marijuana Could Be a Gusher of Cash If We Treated It Like a Crop, Not a Crime

Marijuana Could Be a Gusher of Cash If We Treated It Like a Crop, Not a Crime

By Steven Wishnia, AlterNet. Posted September 11, 2008.

Economists estimate tens of billions for governments if we taxed pot like tobacco and stopped wasting money on the drug war.



If marijuana were legal but taxed like alcohol and tobacco, how much money could it bring in to cash-strapped state governments?

One 2006 study called cannabis the top cash crop in the nation, worth more than corn and wheat combined. It was the leading crop in 12 states, outstripping grapes in California and tobacco in North Carolina, and one of the top three in 18 others, coming in just behind apples in Washington and cotton in Georgia. So with states facing massive deficits, could reefer revenues help?

The answer is unclear, but it could be lucrative for governments, especially when combined with the savings from ending prohibition. As the U.S. marijuana market is illegal, there are no sales figures. Estimates of its size range from $10.5 billion a year to $113 billion. But three studies done by economists and policy analysts say ganja taxes could bring in anywhere from $2.4 billion to $31.1 billion in revenue, depending on how big the sales really are. About one-third of that would go to the states.

"There's not enough really good data on it, so it's probably best to look at it in ballpark figures," says Jon Gettman, a Virginia policy analyst who has worked with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project. "But there's a consensus that there's an awful lot of marijuana out there and that it's very valuable."

"The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," a 2005 study by Harvard economics professor Jeffrey A. Miron, makes the most conservative projections of the three studies. It calculates possible pot tax revenues at $2.4 billion. That's assuming that prices would drop about 25 percent under legalization, that pot-related economic activities were taxed at the national average of 30 percent, and that the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy's estimate that the domestic cannabis market is worth $10.5 billion is accurate. If herb were taxed more heavily, as alcohol and cigarettes are, that could bring in as much as $9.5 billion -- although excessive "sin taxes" could cause pot smokers to cut down or grow their own, diminishing revenues. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/98317/marijuana_could_be_a_gusher_of_cash_if_we_treated_it_like_a_crop%2C_not_a_crime/

Ya fuckin think??? :eyes:

I had the exact same "No shit, Captain Obvious" response.

The Alcohol and the Anti-depressant industries.

Given all the industrial uses cannabis has, virtually no-one in business would want to see it legalised (except possibly the tobacco industry, under very strict limits).

Alcohol is the obvious one. While their business wouldn't collapse overnight (I'd always prefer a pint over a joint), they would lose a lot of business. Ditto Big Pharma, they'd be left only with the major clinical depressives like myself to turn a profit from.

and mellow to boot. Where's the profit?

The real ales I like to drink don't have much of a profit margin on them, they're brewed by beer enthuasiasts just for the purpose of making a good beer and legal pot probably wouldn't have much of a profit margin either.

The makers of Twinkies and Doritos are quietly lobbying Congress and financing pro-cannabis groups.

They stand to make billions.

:smoke:

My mother is the only person I know that doesn't smoke pot.

...I too like a good toke now and again.

B-)

As would the cheap labor corporations. Can't have that now can we?

Don't tell me that doesn't influence in some way how many "crimes" there are.

Defense attorneys founded NORML. NACDL has always taken an anti-prohibition position. Do you have any evidence to back up your claim that criminal defense attorneys have played any role whatsoever in blocking legalization efforts? I'll answer that for you. No. You don't. Thanks for playing.

In most cases, legalising something causes the price to drop. That said, virtually everyone who's looked at it has been saying this for years.

The USA could certainly use the cash right now.

We could also greatly reduce a little thing called global warming by allowing farmers to fill fields with the stuff

Oh, and the stuff requires almost no pesticides either!

All great benefits to Mother Earth.

"Look, there's this plant that'll grow virtually anywhere, doesn't need much looking after. You can make hard-wearing clothes from it, cosmetics, medicines, oil and a basic foodstuff and just so you can be sure which plant it is, smoking it makes you feel good as well".

If the grown-ups ever get in power in your country or mine, I can see a time when any rural community has fields of cannabis as far as the eye can see. Farmers are mainly happy, content and making a decent living (since cannabis is cheap to raise). Rizla, Zig-Zag and Zippo are cornerstones of the economy. Every evening, a horde of volunteers press bowls of warm gruel into the hands of the homeless (tastes like crap but incredibly nutiritious).

Oh and the power mongers too! Growing hemp World wide and many countries do, would go along way toward healing the planet and getting us off our oil addiction. Right?

Geez, there's something else that hadn't occured to me. Current biofuels are unsustainable, both because of the limited nature of the crop and because of the pesticides and such needed to grow them. Cannabis doesn't require anything like that and I'd be willing to wager that cannabis oil could be used as a biofuel.

fossil fuel. He also made parts of his cars out of hemp, bumpers being one. http://www.hempcar.org/ford.shtml

Some of it is slightly beyond me (I'm not mechanically minded) but this is fascinating stuff. Thanks.

:smoke:

over a plant which is non-toxic, milder and less addictive than alcohol or cigerettes.

But I doubt it will ever happen in our lifetime....too 'liberal' of an idea, even for our liberal politicians.

He admits he doesn't have a prayer but bless him, he's making an attempt.

Reefer Man (Cab Calloway)
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=14658

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzynQ8LPyAM

I wanted the Viper tune, but this footage is so precious. I love this man. I played trumpet in a stage production of this many years ago. I'll never forget the night I sat in my 1961 Rambler American convertible with the top down. Smoking a joint with the gorgeous black girl who danced in that viper tune. And here I sit all alone on a Saturday foggy morning. At least I have DU. And memories.

even if it's cultivation was approved only for industrial uses and not as a recreational drug, the benefits would be considerable . . .

All the ATF agents, trials, prison guards etc etc etc.
Would also deny sources of money to street gangs, smugglers, organized crime, and unfriendly foreign goverments......

.. about time the eggheads started catching up...

American economy depends on technological innovation. But we're behind on alternative energy and our science education is lagging. Until we recover from the Bush years, what will power the economy the way the Internet did in the recent past and the motorcar assembly line did in the distant past?

For a quick budget infusion, legalize and tax (1) weed and (2) online gambling.

The Religious Right will howl. But they engineered a blasphemous and unChristian coup for state power and won. Then they all but bankrupted our economy for their greedy corporate allies.

You break it, you pay for it.

Alternative: remove tax exemptions for churches.

A new bio-energy source?

Hemp is very high-grade raw material for use in bio-diesel.

After refining retains good lubricating qualities essential to long life of injectors, fuel pumps in diesel applications. Lower in particulate matter and NOx than petro diesel, burns cleaner and hotter.

The fibrous by-product that remains after pressing has value in fabric-making applications.

I suppose if there was enough planted, using the leftovers to fire boilers like they use sugar cane spoils to generate energy is a great idea. Some of those sugar processors are powered by cane-fired steam.

It's pretty much legal up here now. I was talking with one of the local small time backyard growers the other day, and was pretty surprised to here that it's far from the five grand per pound that it used to be.

As an aside, I read that wineries surpassed logging in Mendocino county. And cannabis surely would not be trivial if we just let it be.

It's a subject I spent many a year pondering seriously. What crock this judicial system and group of citizens is. So stupid. Especially in lilght of the addictive poisons that are readily available to anyone. Boooo! Hiss!

per pound??



:wow:



Heebus! I remember when a fucking key was $200.

they'd have to be able to sell 'growing licenses' as a way to tax homegrown pot.

after all- it is a weed that can easily be grown in all 50 states.

if the supply sky-rocketed, the demand wouldn't keep up, and the price would plummet.

Hemp for Victory is a 1942 government film encouraging farmers to grow as much as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne9UF-pFhJY

Legalizing and taxing pot would be very beneficial to us, but god forbid all the vested interests should lose money.

The trouble is that keeping dope illegal makes money for select classes of people, and they don't want to give up the goose laying the golden egg. Keeping dope illegal makes money for lawyers, prosecutors, police departments, politicians, the "security" industry, all those fine labs that process pee tests, etc. etc. These people also have the power, wealth and position to keep this cash cow to themselves. There fore that sort of revenue is never, ever going to be given to the people at large, not unless there is a major change in this country.

any ideas, pm me..... ;)

I mean if it were legal I would grow the shit, it's not a complicated crop and the curing process is a hell of a lot easier than tobacco.