We all are pretty much aware that marijuana is a lucrative business.
But just how much money could the industry generate if every single state in the nation would pass legislation?
According to a new study, the industry could make at least $132 billion in tax revenue and additionally there could be over a million jobs added in the U.S. over the next ten years.
Data analytics firm New Frontier Data has crunched the numbers and this is what their forecast is if marijuana is legalized on the federal level.
Beau Whitney, a senior economist at New Frontier Data remarked, “When there are budget deficits and the like, everybody wants to know where is there an additional revenue stream, and one of the most logical places is to go after cannabis and cannabis taxes.”
According to the firm, the federal government would make $51.7 billion in sales tax from a legal marijuana market between 2017 and 2025. The tax rate used in the study was at 35%.
Giadha Aguirre De Carcer, the CEO of New Frontier, said, “If cannabis businesses were legalized tomorrow and taxed as normal businesses with a standard 35 percent tax rate, cannabis businesses would infuse the U.S. economy with an additional $12.6 billion this year.”
“Consumers want to do things legally in general, but they don’t want to do it at too much of a price,” Whitney explained. “If they go to 7-11 to pick up cannabis, they’re willing to pay 10 to 15 percent on top of what they get on the street. Once they get above that, it slows the transition and makes the consumer think twice about making that legal purchase.”
