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The Fraser Institute (Canada), 2004-06-09 BC's Marijuana Crop Worth Over $7 billion Annually -- Legalize, It and Tax the Revenue by Stephen T. Easton, Senior Fellow A The Fraser Institute Publication
Vancouver, BC - BC¹s annual marijuana crop, if valued at retail street
prices and sold by the cigarette, is worth over $7 billion, according to a
new study Marijuana Growth in British Columbia, released today by The Fraser
Institute.
Marijuana should be decriminalized, treated like any legal product, and the
revenue taxed. Using conservative assumptions about Canadian consumption,
this could translate into potential revenues for the government of over $2
billion.
The study¹s author, Stephen Easton, professor of economics at Simon Fraser
University and a Senior Fellow at The Fraser Institute, estimates that there
are roughly 17,500 marijuana grow ops in BC.
Marijuana is produced extensively and over 23 percent of Canadians admit to
having used it. Easton points out that the broader social question has
become not whether we approve or disapprove of local production, but rather
who shall enjoy the spoils.
³If we treat marijuana like any other commodity we can tax it, regulate it,
and use the resources the industry generates rather than continue a war
against consumption and production that has long since been lost,² said
Easton. ³It is apparent that we are reliving the experience of alcohol
prohibition of the early years of the last century.²
Indoor marijuana cultivation and consumption appears to be higher in BC than
in the rest of Canada. Easton points out that the most striking difference
is that only 13 percent of offenders in BC are actually charged while that
number climbs to 60 percent for the rest of Canada. In addition, the
penalties for conviction in BC are low: fifty-five percent of those
convicted receive no jail time.
While police resources are spent to destroy nearly 3,000 marijuana grow-ops
a year in BC, the consequences are relatively minor for those convicted. The
industry is simply too profitable to prevent new people moving into
production and old producers from rebuilding.
³Unless we wish to continue the transfer of these billions from this
lucrative endeavor to organized crime, the current policy on prohibition
should be changed. Not only would we deprive some very unsavoury groups of a
profound source of easy money, but also resources currently spent on
marijuana enforcement would be available for other activities,² said Easton.
Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy
organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto.
Read the full study at:
Stephen T. Easton, Senior Fellow © 2004 The Fraser Institute |
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