Legal cannabis industry generated $3.7 billion $ in U.S. tax revenue in 2021

Since 2014, when sales began in Colorado and Washington, legalization policies have provided U.S. states with a new source of revenue. As of March 2022, states had reported a combined total of $11.2 billion in tax revenue from legal adult-use cannabis sales since 2014.

In 2021 alone, the U.S. states that have legalized cannabis have generated more than $3.7 billion in tax revenue from adult-use cannabis sales. In addition to the revenue generated for state budgets, cities and municipalities have also generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue from local taxes on adult-use cannabis.

Canada, for its part, generated 15 billion $CA in taxes since it was legalized in 2018.

18 U.S. states have legalized it since 2014

18 U.S. states now have laws that legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis for adults aged 21 and older. Eight of these laws were approved in 2020 or 2021, and in six of those states, sales and tax collection have not yet begun.

A recent report from Marijuana Policy Project, the largest organization working on cannabis law reform in the United States, reviews the various recreational cannabis tax structures for each U.S. state.

«Our report provides further evidence that ending cannabis prohibition offers enormous financial benefits to state governments. The legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults have generated billions of dollars in tax revenue, funded important state-level services and programs, and created thousands of jobs across the country. »Meanwhile, states that are lagging behind continue to waste public funds by enforcing archaic cannabis laws that harm far too many Americans,” said Toi Hutchinson, president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, in a press release.

In states where the sale of cannabis for adult use is legal, tax revenue can be used for social services and programs. This includes funding for education, school construction, early literacy programs, public libraries, bullying prevention, behavioral health, alcohol and drug treatment, veterans’ services, conservation, vocational training, expungement of criminal records, and reinvestment in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

About ten others States Could Legalize Recreational Cannabis in 2022, including Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Rhode Island, and South Dakota.

Key Figures at a Glance

2021 Totals by State:

• Alaska: 28,900,231 $
• Arizona: 153,824,757 $
• California: 1,294,632,799 $
• Colorado: 396,157,005 $
• Illinois: 424 206 703 $
• Maine: 12,362,622 $
• Massachusetts: 227,474,842 $
• Michigan: 209,912,278 $
• Nevada: 159,885,501 $
• Oregon: 177,773,944 $
• Washington: 630 863 570 $

Year-over-year totals:

• 2014 : 68 503 980 $
• 2015 : 264 211 871 $
• 2016 : 530 521 110 $
• 2017 : 723 145 481 $
• 2018 : 1 275 483 830 $
• 2019 : 1 707 204 090 $
• 2020 : 2 766 027 570 $
• 2021 : 3 715 994 252 $