“In Colorado, for every dollar gained from marijuana taxes, taxpayers spend $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization.”
Reefer Madness BS. The truth about that bogus study:
‘the authors do not include cost estimates for years prior to legalization. In both the social sciences and the medical field, researchers often attempt to isolate the impact of a change in one group (the “treatment group”) from a similar group (the “control group”). In this case, the authors could have compared the current costs per year since legalization to annual costs prior to legalization when marijuana was consumed illicitly. Because the authors fail to attempt to isolate the impact, no peerreviewed academic journal would consider the findings credible (Wing et al., 2018).
‘A true cost-benefit analysis would include all the benefits of legalization– not just state tax revenues. These include added local tax revenues, income taxes, reduced incarceration costs, decreased policing costs, and lower legal fees. [...]
‘Most glaringly, the authors fail to include the impact of legalization on economic activity, or gross state product (GSP), on the benefits side of the equation. This is a remarkable omission in a cost-benefit analysis. [...] In the case of marijuana legalization, residents and visitors spent more than $760 million on legal recreational marijuana in Colorado in the 12 months between July 2017 and June 2018 (Manzo et al., 2018). Ignoring this economic activity altogether is another blemish in the Centennial Institute’s analysis.
‘Moreover, the authors erroneously consider certain items “costs” when they should instead be listed as “benefits.” Marijuana arrests represent their biggest mistake. The authors report report that taxpayer expenditures on marijuanarelated arrests fell from $14.8 million in 2012 before legalization to $7.2 million in 2017 post-legalization (Centennial Institute, 2018). The authors inexplicably use the 2017 figure of $7.2 million and call it a “cost” of legalized marijuana despite the fact that costs have mathematically fallen by $7.6 million per year since legalization. This should obviously be listed as a benefit, not a cost.’
Thanks NobleFree.