The RAND Corporation, whose mission it is to “help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis”, recently published an 80+ page research study on the impacts of a legal marijuana market in California.
I’ve been saying for a while that there’s no reason cannabis should sell for more than $100/oz except for prohibition, and the gurus at RAND agree. They project around $88-91/oz, which includes a hypothetical $50/oz tax.
Their other California conclusions include:
• The pretax retail price of marijuana will substantially decline, likely by more than 80 percent. The price consumers face will depend heavily on taxes, the structure of the regulatory regime, and how taxes and regulations are enforced.
• Consumption will increase, but it is unclear how much because we know neither the shape of the demand curve nor the level of tax evasion (which reduces revenues and the prices that consumers face).
• Tax revenues could be dramatically lower or higher than the $1.4 billion estimate; for example, uncertainty about the federal response to California legalization can swing estimates in either direction.
• Previous studies find that the annual cost of enforcing marijuana laws ranges from around $200 million to nearly $1.9 billion; our estimates show that the costs are probably less than $300 million.
Read the full report here: Altered State? Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets
i am just a simple patient from montana, but what would work best in my oppinion is just to let it exsplode…the market for it is huge every where and if the government just left it alone.. it would act like any plant and become over grown and then die off… if you got to place like canada or amsterdam they could care less… its old news to them so much that people on a general level dont even pay attention to it. sorry about my grammar. thanks for listening to my two cents lol.