If California Legalized Pot...
July 11, 2010
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RAND Corporation is out with a new study that finds that if California legalized marijuana, then pot's use would increase and pot's cost would decrease. Three other significant findings from the report's summary are:
"(3) Tax revenues could be dramatically lower or higher than $1.4 billion; for example, uncertainty surrounds potential tax revenues California might derive from taxing marijuana used by residents of other states (e.g., from "drug tourism"). (4) Previous studies find that the annual costs of enforcing marijuana laws in California range from around $200 million to nearly $1.9 billion; our estimates show that the costs are probably less than $300 million. (5) There is considerable uncertainty about the impact of legalizing marijuana in California on public budgets and consumption, with even minor changes in assumptions leading to major differences in outcomes."
The Rand report is titled, Altered State? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets
The report's authors are Beau Kilmer, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Robert J. MacCoun, and Peter H. Reuter. A .pdf download is available here.
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Franco Folini. It was used under Creative Commons license.
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