Belgium: legalizing cannabis could bring in 150 million euros

While Belgium has just legalize CBD cannabis and regulate it like tobacco, a recent report entitled Cannaconomics, based on the by Terra Nova, estimates that the legalization of cannabis could bring in some 150 million euros for the kingdom.

The study compares three control scenarios These are: decriminalization, state-controlled regulation and a free, competitive market. All three cases would bring in money for the state, but taking into account the costs of justice, public health and new tax revenues, the study's authors conclude that the most profitable scenario would be state-controlled legalization, with a gain of 144 million euros.

Decriminalization would reduce public spending by 42.8 million euros for the Belgian state, without any revenue, since only consumption would be tolerated. The competitive market, with private companies free to set production quantities, would generate 78.4 million euros for Belgium.

The study's estimates should be treated with caution, however, as they are based on existing figures for cannabis consumption in Belgium, which are not legal and are therefore underestimated. Official French figures, for example, put annual consumption at 250 tonnes of cannabis, when we estimate it to be at least 360 tonnes.

It also takes into account only the sales price of the products, and not all the value created along the production chain (cultivation/processing/distribution) and on the services linked to the industry (cultivation equipment, site security, growers, manufacture of industrial tools for extraction...), or even the costs incurred directly by the State for the acquisition of cultivation and processing licenses.

Cannabis is currently illegal in Belgium, but there is some tolerance for small quantities of cannabis (under 3 grams), and self-cultivation of cannabis is limited to one plant per person. It is on this principle that the following have been set up the first Cannabis Social Clubs Belgium, who proposed a joint cannabis cultivation limited to one plant per person. The latter, however, had to contend with numerous lawsuits and different assessments of the law in Wallonia and Flanders.

The Belgian PS and Ecolos are in favor of legalizing cannabis, as are the Parti du Travail de Belgique (left - far left) and Le Défi (center). The Mouvement Réformateur (right) has no clear position on the subject, and the Centre Démocratique Humaniste (center) is opposed to legalizing cannabis in Belgium.