9 legal pot initiatives could add $7.8B to U.S. economy

“The cannabis industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy and continues to astonish those in and out of the space,” Giadha DeCarcer, New Frontier’s CEO, said in a statement announcing the study. In November, voters in nine different states will be voting in regards to marijuana legalization that could in return, potentially increase the US economy by as much as $7.8 billion. While illegal at the federal level, twenty-five states currently permit medical marijuana use in some form, with that number seeming to only be increasing in the future. The state of California will be voting on a system that would create a tax on marijuana, and this alone could raise up to a billion dollars. Obviously there is a great deal of negative opinions when it comes to the legalization of marijuana, but regardless, legal or not, the sale of this drug has and always will be a hot commodity in the United States. Instead of this money continuing to go to drug dealers and smugglers through illegal sale, the tax could take this money and use it to greatly increase our economy. According to a report from the New Frontier Data and Arcview Market Research, this market in the states where it is currently legal could be worth as much as $20.6 billion by 2020. People need to understand that regardless of whether or not the use of marijuana is legal or not, the selling and use of it has always generated a remarkable amount of money, and will continue to do so in the future. If this tax system is passed, and the legalization process continues on to more states, the amount of money that can be raised in our economy will be billions of dollars within the first four years. Consumer spending on marijuana in states where it is legal will increase drastically, and the amount of money the state governments will be able to generate from these taxes can also have a positive impact. People need to start begging the question whether or not we should try and make the most out of this business that by no means will be going anywhere any time soon. The demand for marijuana is very high, and if we decide to take advantage of it, like California might begin to if the voting passes, billions of dollars will be generated and put into our economy, and not in the pockets of smugglers and drug traffickers.