Road to an Economic High: Pristine Vision or Pure Delusion?

The sector most affected by this is the construction sector which experienced a loss in labor productivity as big as $3,963 per worker in the year following the policy alterations. This loss might be attributed to the lousy nature of workers after consuming the banished substance.

The underground movement and public consensus regarding the legalization of the devil's lettuce must also have several multidimensional rationalizations, including economic-related ones. One might also ponder about the economic benefits of which can and have been reaped as a result of legalizing the debarred plant.

As You Sow, So Shall You Reap

The legalization of cannabis means accepting it as a legal commodity of which can be involved in trade activities and contribute to a region's income. A majority of income able to be raked in by the local government which regions imply the liberalization of marijuana originates from taxes. 

Seven of the eleven states that have legalized recreational uses of ganja proceeded to tax their hash and they have taxed the plant 10-37% higher than local sales taxes. These sky-high taxes result in millions of Benjamins raked in by the state government. For instance, Washington and Carolina both made gargantuan incomes coming in at $319 million and $300 million respectively.

To put the fortunes gained from these plants into perspective, Pueblo County, a dying region in Colorado, managed to revive their moribund economy by 2014 when the cannabis industry was introduced. By making a hefty investment of $23 million for initial groundwork, Pueblo was able to acquire around $58 million in 2016, resulting in an economic impact of around $35 million. The cannabis industry in Pueblo was predicted to reap $100 million in the next 3 years.

A true projection of the great riches of which cannabis can pull in can be projected by assessing its true home-- the black market. The marijuana black market is the manifestation of utopia for blunt-smokers seeking for their heavenly escape, though illegally. 

By legalizing marijuana and accepting it as a commodity, it is to be expected that the tax revenue acquired from the sales of hash in the black market can be assumed to be part of the region's revenue. 

To convey the true size of the weed black market, a $46 billion valuation has been projected for the North American black market in 2016. That translates to (using 2005 black market data) $2,4 billion worth of tax revenue assuming equal tax rates as other goods and $6,2 billion  worth of tax revenue assuming tax rates equal to tobacco and alcohol (Jeffrey A Miron, 2005).

Legalizing a previously illegal commodity acquaints  the abolishment of costs prior needed to enforce the law. These national costs to enforce the legal status of marijuana can be dichotomized into three components: police expenditure, prosecutorial and judicial expenditure, and correctional expenditure. 

Police expenditure takes into account the total amount of monetary resources required to carry out a standalone drug arrest. Prosecutorial and judicial expenditure includes all of the monetary costs exerted during felony convictions carried out in state courts regarding drug violations.