It’s not just the $10M in taxes the state’s earned in four months — it’s also the $12-40M in law enforcement savings from not busting and imprisoning pot smokers.
And then there’s the huge economic dead-weight losses averted by not turning productive working people into felons and destroying their families by putting them in jail. Pot related arrests — the major source of drug busts — are down 50%. Murders are down more than 50%.
The governor (who opposed legalization) is projecting $134M in tax revenue next year.
Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado [Chris Miles/Policy Mic]
(via Hacker News)
(Image: LEGAL Colorado Marijuana Grow, Brett Levin, CC-BY)