USA: legal cannabis generates over 500 million in taxes in 2016

Cannabis is bringing in big bucks for US states that are moving beyond prohibition. In 2016, total tax revenue from medical and recreational cannabis reached $500 million in Colorado, Oregon and Washington alone.

However, only 12, 3% of transactions were carried out on the legal market according to the group Arcview. If all sales were legal, the market could have generated $12 billion in taxes. New Frontier Data, a statistical analyst with the Arcview Group, predicts that cannabis taxes could bring in around $1.8 billion for US states in 2020, figures calculated on the basis of retail cannabis sales.

An incalculable market

While Arcview makes numerical predictions, other cannabis exchange institutes such as Viridian take the political factor into account. According to founder Scott Greiper, forecasts are difficult to make, but the entire market could exceed $100 billion a year if cannabis is legalized at federal level. According to Greiper, Wall Street has understood the economic potential of cannabis. The value of legal weed shares rose by around 236 % compared with 2015.

«As more and more states and countries legalize weed, an industrial revolution is underway. All sectors are involved: agri-tech, bio-tech, software, security, by-products. Cannabis is evolving from a social demand to a big business.»

From all these direct and indirect jobs, Viridian generates $100 billion.

Leslie Bockstor of Electrum Partners, a consulting agency specializing in cannabis, railed against federal prohibition: »Imagine how much currency could stay in our territory and in our economy. Right now, most of it is still in the hands of the cartels and dealers.

New Frontier Data forecasts $745 million from retail cannabis sales in 2017. This figure is set to rise even further in the next few years, as California, the world's 6th largest economy, joins the race for legal green gold in 2018.

via Leafly