How do you explain the hundreds of millions in tax revenues that CO and WA are pulling in a year on sales in the billions?
That’s a big chunk of the market.
It’s transferred from other areas like healthcare, education etc (increased costs). I haven’t seen a calculation indicating increased health insurance premiums passed down to non-pot using consumers. It’s hard to get clean data on the results because the pro pot lobby outspends heavily and produces their own favorable reports. How do you put a cost on the fact that Colorado youth have the highest marijuana use rate in the nation? That’s Colorado’s future work force - so the impact of pot legalization has yet to be realized in full.
“Marijuana-related traffic deaths increased by 154 percent between 2006 and 2014; Colorado emergency room hospital visits that were “likely related” to marijuana increased by 77 percent from 2011 to 2014; and drug-related suspensions/expulsions increased 40 percent from school years 2008/2009 to 2013/2014, according to a September 2015 report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Traffic Area, a collaboration of federal, state and local drug enforcement agencies.”
http://www.factcheck.org/2016/08/unpacking-pots-impact-in-colorado/
“Here are the highlights in just three years since legalization:
Marijuana-related traffic deaths increased 48 percent.
Over 20 percent of all traffic deaths were marijuana related compared to only 10 percent six years ago.
Marijuana-related emergency department visits increased 49 percent.
Marijuana-related hospitalizations increased 32 percent.
Marijuana-related calls to the Rocky Mountain Poison Center increased 100 percent.
Diversion of Colorado marijuana to other states increased 37 percent by vehicle and 427 percent by parcels.
Colorado youth now rank number one in the nation for marijuana use and 74 percent higher than the national average.
Colorado college-age group now rank number one in the nation for marijuana use and 62 percent higher than the national average.
Colorado adults now rank number one in the nation for marijuana use and 104 percent higher than the national average.”
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/08/31/studies-show-results-of-legal-pot-in-colorado/
Humorously, there are foggy statistics like “Colorado’s drug related crime rate has dropped” and they mean the crime of possessing or selling marijuana or factor it in to overall CO crime rate decreases- you just have to read the fine print! Of course if it’s legal than the crime of possession/selling will drop by “precipitously”!
As I researched, I frequently found stories saying dispensaries in counties which have legalized pot (it’s not statewide) report most business is from tourists (so taxes collected are coming from residents who don’t live in CO) so, in theory if it was federally legalized, the revenue would be much smaller (drastic reduction in tourist tax dollars).
Colorado Marijuana Taxes, License, and Fee Revenue
Calendar Year Total Revenue
2014 $67,594,323
2015 $130,411,173
2016 $193,604,810
2017 (Jan-Sep) $181,981,627
Updated October 2017
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data
I just checked the proposed CO budget for 2017 and it’s $28.5 Billion. So if 2017 marijuana fees and taxes is around $200,000 million, it constitutes a contribution of .007% to the state budget and an unknown exchange in healthcare/crime/social/educational costs.