Study: Marijuana sales booming
A new study concludes medical marijuana is booming business.
The national debt is growing faster than hydroponic weed.
Medical marijuana, legally sold in only seven states, already has the revenue ($1.7 billion) of Viagra, a drug available everywhere there are men who like sex. The study says legal marijuana sales will likely be much higher in 5 years –up to $8.7 billion.
The study, by See Change Strategy, was released Wednesday.
You can buy a lot of Spreewells with that kind of change.
I have no idea what the market would be for legalized non-medical marijuana, but it would have to dwarf $8.7 billion, even if prices declined with increased urban farmer production.
Stephen Easton, writing for the Fraser Institute, estimates if the government sold marijuana at the current inflated street price ($10 per gram), an extra $100 billion in taxes could be sucked out of consumer pockets.
Elected officials could upgrade their $60,000 SUVs, that’s for sure.
Or, if Congress used that $100 billion a year prudently, the U.S. could pay off its national debt in just 140 annual payments.
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37 comments Add your comment
LifeCrystalKid
March 23rd, 2011
8:09 pm
I’m definitely not a smoker… but if there is a HUGE economic benefit, creates jobs, and can reduce the deficit (as soon and as drastically as you say), then I’m all for it!
Jman
March 23rd, 2011
8:27 pm
I’m all for it.
C'est la vie
March 23rd, 2011
8:27 pm
Yes.
Jimbo
March 23rd, 2011
8:33 pm
But here’s the deal–people with a corporate job can’t smoke it cause we might get tested and fail and get fired. Somebody has to find a way to determine, did someone smoke pot THIS MORNING before coming to work? Or did they hang out with friends last Friday night and hit a doobie? There should be no law on smoking a little, but until someone figures how to test pot like you can with alcohol, the business won’t take off TOO MUCH.
killerj
March 23rd, 2011
8:35 pm
Tree of knowledge,found in shamans graves over 4 thousand years ago,to deny it as medicinal is a lie, just ask cancer patients.Go Tea Party.
JRev
March 23rd, 2011
8:36 pm
Duh. Supply vs. Demand. People want to smoke and they will get it no matter what the gov’t does. Why not reap the profits instead of giving it to the black market? I mean, we’re talking about a drug that is so much less harmful than alcohol here. I’ve never heard an intelligent argument for keeping it illegal. Unless you want prohibition of alcohol as well, you should be for legalization of marijuana. I heard one argument is that the healthcare costs for marijuana usage outweigh the taxes. Um, sorry, but since people are going to smoke anyway, that’s a strawman argument. Does anyone have a real reason that isn’t based on your own idea of morality and imposing that morality on others? I didn’t think so.
KW
March 23rd, 2011
8:41 pm
Who are the manufacturers of these drugs? Any of them publicly traded?
JRev
March 23rd, 2011
8:42 pm
Jimbo, there are ways to determine marijuana usage more accurately than “sometime in the last month”. I believe hair/blood tests do this more accurately than urine tests. With such a huge boom in the market, these tests would become cheaper. Most companies just do urine testing because it is cheaper.
legalize it
March 23rd, 2011
8:48 pm
weed should be 100% legal—alcohol is much worse and that’s legal so the govt should legalize weed to smoke whenever I want, including at work and at sports events.
Tim
March 23rd, 2011
8:56 pm
KW there is a company, formerly called the Amergence Group(AMNG) that is publicly traded.
The company has a new name this month called ALTITUDE ORGANIC CORPORATION.
Their stock is a penny stock right now sold OTC(over the counter). It is in the dumps right now.
Why I don’t know, however here is today’s closing price : $0.0043
So one could hypothetically buy quite a few shares for a very little money. Of course it could also go belly up.