The best solution for Uncle Sam’s sea of red ink may be green. A great green rush.
I have the perfect chart to illustrate why the U.S. will legalize marijuana. It comes down to the most basic of reasons.
And by that, I mean money. Specifically, money for governments.
Take a look at the first year of cannabis taxes in Nevada. That state has a 10% tax on retail sales of marijuana, and a 15% wholesale tax.
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Nevada collected more than $69.8 million in marijuana tax revenue over the past 12 months. That’s 140% more than it expected to bring in. This news comes via the Nevada Department of Taxation.
And it’s not the only state reaping a green windfall. Colorado collected $247 million in cannabis taxes and licensing last year. That’s on top of $193 million in 2016 and $130 million in 2015.
Nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia legalized recreational marijuana. And 30 states and D.C. legalized medical marijuana use.
What this chart shows is the tremendous incentive for more states to legalize recreational weed.
For example, when Michigan legalizes pot this year, it could make Nevada’s tax revenue look like chump change. A new analysis says marijuana legalization in the Wolverine State could help the state NET $130 million a year in new revenue.
Over the first five years, Michigan would generate a combined $520 million in revenue. That comes from a new 10% marijuana excise tax and the existing 6% state sales tax, according to the analysis.
What about on the federal level? Well, last year, the legal cannabis market in the U.S. was worth $9.2 billion. This year, it will be worth about $11 billion, according to ArcView Research.
By 2030, it could be worth $75 billion.
Now, I ask you, what happens if the feds legalized it? And tax it?
Well, New Frontier Data estimates the cannabis industry could generate $131.8 BILLION in federal tax revenue alone and add 1.1 million jobs by 2025 if it’s legalized for adult use in all 50 states.
Is this important? It is if Uncle Sam wants to balance his books. After all, the Office of Management and Budget has projected a deficit for the coming fiscal year of $1.085 TRILLION! And the OMB projects trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
I’m not saying legal pot is a cure-all for that problem. But it’s a step in the right direction. One that governments on the state AND federal levels may find more agreeable as time goes on, and debts pile up.
There are plenty of ways to play this trend, and I’m recommending some to my subscribers. And in this space, I recently told you about a marijuana thoroughbred that’s leaving Bitcoin in the dust. If you’re doing this on your own, be sure to do your own due diligence.
All the best,
Sean
P.S. Would you like an exclusive insight into my hottest investment picks? Then you MUST attend the New Orleans Investment Conference. New Orleans is a great city anyway, and this is an excellent conference. Doug Casey, Rick Rule, Brien Lundin and many other razor-sharp investors will share their insights with attendees. If you want to find more about it, CLICK HERE. And I hope to see you there.
James E. Buchanan October 25, 2018
Your article about legalizing weed and the resulting billions raised gives rise to the partial solution to the deficit problem in this country and falsely ascribed to this drug as a partial solution to our “debt problem”. It is interesting to me that most of you pundits have solutions to this country’s “problems”. Few, if any, quote what the Bible says about this. Let me give an alternate solution and that is the ONLY solution to our country’s problem is JESUS and the change of hearts as only He can bring. There is VERY little character or integrity in the leadership in Washington. You will probably scoff at my statement, but some day at the Judgment when your knee bows before Him, you might be surprised at my statement made on this date. II Timothy 3
John October 13, 2018
Great Stuff
Bob Schubring October 3, 2018
Why everyone is underestimating the yield from cannabis tax, is that it’s the drug of choice for folks who suffer from ADHD. A lot of those people don’t want their diagnosis to be known, because the DEA-approved med for it, Adderall, is a mixture of 2 addictive amphetamines that are basically synthetic crack. The side effects are horrific. Folks who can legally own cannabis by paying a tax on it, are choosing to do that, because they don’t trust anybody who has been trying to sell them Adderall. But the same folks aren’t talking about why they need the drug. The politics of this are going to get awfully strange, because DEAs only real friends are in the private prisons business. Kids who fail in school because of ADHD move into the crime business, because nobody else is hiring. DEA has criminalized the disease and the treatment for the disease. Prison companies and the DEA are a giant boat anchor pulling down our drowning national economy…they make the debts worse and diminish the supply of possible revenue…and they show zero social benefits for the money they spend. (Seriously, when was the last time someone’s life got saved because of a drug arrest? We can count the lives ruined by the Drug War. We’re guessing that the Drug War is necessary, because DEA and the prison companies say it is.)