Topic: Can legalisation of Cannabis help US economy? - page 7. (Read 1414 times)

Cannabis legalization could help the U.S. economy because global climate change has had an impact on the U.S. The country's agriculture is in danger. Once known as the bread basket of the Middle East the country's farmers are now unable to cope with the changing climate and have resorted to cannabis cultivation to alleviate the economic woes. The government is trying to legalize cannabis considering the country's economic situation as it is possible to cultivate it in drought prone weather and relatively low water. since the cultivation of Gaza has not yet been legalized it will pose a great risk to them.

Canada and their legalization of Cannabis can be seen as a good example, in my opinion. When they legalized marihuana in 2018 a complete new business sector began booming. Investors from all over the world saw their opportunity in this "green rush", investing like crazy and creating a bubble that eventually popped in early 2019. The North American Marijuana Index shows this development pretty good. From its ATH it lost around 80% at one point. Canopy Growth, which was once one of the biggest companies in the cannabis sector saw their market cap falling from $24 billion to $6 billion [1].


North American Marijuana Index
Source: https://marijuanaindex.com/stock-quotes/north-american-marijuana-index-tracking-top-cannabis-stocks-in-north-america/

And it seems like there is no real turnaround ahead. In fact, it's quite the opposite. The legal cannabis seems to have problems with high prices and poor quality. So even though cannabis is legalized, the black market is thriving in Canada, taking away customers of legal cannabis [1].

So to come back to the title of this thread. I think this shows pretty good that neither will the legalization of cannabis saves the US economy, nor does it justify a blind hype for that business sector.

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[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/18/cannabis-canada-legal-recreational-business

To a Keynesian, money printing is not a problem as long as there is sufficient growth (including wage growth) to offset the effects of inflation. Legalized cannabis can provide that growth. It's a well known fact that prohibition can't completely kill demand for illegal goods like drugs, but it definitely cuts down the size and growth potential of the overall market.

The Netherlands are doing pretty fine with legal cannabis. It supports the local economy, attracts tourist, and helps their people. If the cannabis industry would get regulated the quality would get better - so a plus for the consumers. Also, instead of supporting drug cartels with buying weed, the government could actually tax the sale and make a profit of it.  Growing cannabis locally would support the local economy and offer new jobs. I think long term US should make it legal in all states. California seems to be doing well also with legalised cannabis.

I don't think it's a good idea to legalize cannabis for the purpose of helping the American economy. Based on the research I have done,
cannabis can have adverse mental and health effects. Therefore, the number of countries that legalized cannabis was not large. I think
Tom Daschle is a cannabis addict, so he really wants to legalize cannabis. Because I've never heard of any politician has such an idea.
And I am curious about what Donald Trump thinks about this idea.

Short answer : NO

Legalisation of Cannabis won't help the economy of not just the US but of any country.

People would for sure be elated about it but there are certain things to consider:

1. This would make it easier for people to get it therefore causing addiction for maybe even 10% of the daily consumers.
I do believe that people think that it's not addictive and in some places people even call it the "medicinal weed" therefore they say it won't medically cause any problem.

But, in reality the usage can cause various disorders which would inturn make it harder to monitor where it's coming from and where it's going.

2. There are many mafias involved in the buying/selling of this particular drug; they would not only cause problems but the government can no longer hold them accountable.

_

Right now it can be medically obtained if prescribed therefore I do believe that's all it should be. With 41,910,114 teenagers in the US ; risking their futures is not how we deal with a crisis..

Cannabis is an herbal plant that is good for medicinal purposes. If cannabis is legalized, it will certainly stabilize and even increase the country's economic value. This method can be used for export commodities as medical necessities and their derivatives, not for abuse and free to use.

Firstly, to solve a problem ones actually have to find the source we know the printing of excess money was one of the thing that causes economy meltdown from the get go. The statement made by former Senate Tom Daschle about legalising Cannabis as solution to economy problem is ridiculous, why didnt they stop the printing of dollars to pump the stock market which is what Trump use to do and backed the US dollars with precious metals instead of oil and gas.

Seeing the people hashtagging legalize cannabis through social media platform even before, I think there's a great number of them and could potentially help the economy If they put excessive taxes on it. Whether for medical or recreational purposes. If the US government put taxes that could easily afford by everyone, well I can say that's a recipe for disaster as more people will abuse the use of this drug.

Of course it can, since it will generate a great income. But the main issue regarding this is the potential abuse for the recreational users. Before passing this bill, for sure there will be measures to limit the use of cannabis.

According to DISA Global Solutions, there are only eight states left in which the use of Marijuana or Cannabis is purely Illegal. That means most states really see this as an opportunity BUT it comes with proper laws. People are only allowed to use it medically at some states and on some states, its even subjected to a descriminalized status that lessens the years of punishment by using Marijuana. Some states really did some research to properly use it and that would boosts its economy.

In the early stages, it would be more about transitioning away from the informal, black economy and towards the formal economy than about actual growth. Cannabis already accounts for a massive underground economy, informally employing millions of people, or formally employing them only at the state level. They're just not paying federal taxes or complying with federal law.

So first comes the transition out of the informal, black economy. Displacing street dealers and brokers, illegal pop-up weed clubs and farmer's markets, illegal growers who will have a harder and harder time placing product on the black market, etc. This obviously causes job losses which are to be replaced by large corporate, licensed, taxpaying entities. This is what has been happening in legal markets like California and Colorado, with several giant companies swallowing up much of the legal industry because of the incredibly high state taxes and licensing costs. Adding federal compliance costs will consolidate things even more in favor of the biggest companies.

Eventually, if it were federally legalized, it would bring considerable growth to the US economy. Legalization of medical and recreational at the state level has obviously brought increased demand to the market as it becomes culturally normalized and regular people don't have to buy on the black market anymore. That would only continue. For the federal government that means a growing new base of tax revenue, so I won't be surprised if it gets legalized in the next 5-10 years.


Federally, hemp is technically legal to grow with very serious restrictions. The threshold is 0.3% THC. In many states, it's legalized just like cannabis cultivation. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/12/14/the-farm-bill-hemp-and-cbd-explainer/

CBD (if manufactured in compliance with the Farm Bill) was removed from the Controlled Substances list but if grown and manufactured illegally, it's still illegal.

It is surprise to me that cannabis is a legal industry in 40 out of 50 USA states. It could take a decade to rebuild industry that was prohibited for over a century.  But overall this cant be a saviour of USA economy. Many other much bigger things will have to go right for that.

CBD is definitely legal in my state, though I don't know about the maximum THC content can be, if any.  I don't live in a state where marijuana has been legalized. 

Yep, you're right about that--but luckily the youth of today are realizing this and are fighting back against the militarization of police (and cops in general) all across the country.  Though I don't agree with a lot of their demands (like complete defunding of the cops), it's great to see all the protests happening.

As to the topic, I do indeed think making cannabis legal can help the economy, and I wish it was legal in all 50 states with minimal restrictions, or at least not more restrictive than alcohol.  The tax revenue certainly could help the government fund all this money printing and stimulus and everything else they're doing to dig the country into a hole that our kids and grandkids are going to have to dig themselves out of.  And yeah, there's a possibility that it would create jobs, but I think the taxation would be the primary benefit.

I know many people would consider buying cannabis for medication because it can help people to relieve their stress, to sleep better at night and to reduce anxiety. But I don't see legalisation or selling cannabis would help the US economy because the only thing what the US economy needs is a vaccine to stop the pandemic of the COVID-19 to resume the productivity or for people to have jobs again.

Can legalisation of Cannabis help US economy? Most certainly, but it's not some kind of magic cure as its portrayed in the article. It's step in the right direction certainly and full legalisation is imminent, sooner or later.


+1

This so called war on drugs that started with Nixon is nothing but a joke that had no positive effect, costs shit load of money both directly and indirectly and didn't bring anything good to the people, except to the prison-industrial complex in the United States.

Think about prostitution and all other drugs. Just imagine how they "can help economy of US right now". What are both turnover per year? Probably many times more than current deficit. Just make them legal for few years, cover with taxes and voila, your country is the richest one.

I agree.  
I like the smell of it rather than the irritating cigarette smoke.

I don't really know why they are taking long talking about it.
That damn weed is medicinal and it's pure. While with cigarettes they put so many chemicals that you won't even recognize if there is still tobacco there.
Just like vape, are the big tobacco companies behind the slow approval?
Maybe. 70 percent.

How did you come up with this ridiculous idea, well would you also postulate that the U.S. government start trafficking drugs to also make money from it to restabilize the economy? Wannabe economic experts have been on the rise since the pandemic with all sorts of panacea to the fallen economy and inflation, but if many of their suggestions like this one on cannabis be implemented, it'd have more cons than pros.

Imo, there's no policy the government can implement to revive the economy as fast as people want, any of such policies, like printing more money as we've seen already will have major consequences on the economy in the long run, as the nation continues to gradually open and businesses restart, the economic situation will slowly start it's recovery process, legalizing what the government considers illegal is not an option to revive the economy.

I think legalisation of cannabis can help economy of US right now. US are loosing a lot in their investors, due to the lockdown, it's time for their government to take a risk to legalized cannabis to give life to their economy.

A point even more important, from an economic point of view, than the health risks of cannabis*, it is foolhardy to declare that opening a couple-billion dollar industy is enough to save a county with a 20 trillion dollar GDP, and even that implies that all the global trade will be conducted by US interests which is simply not the case. At any rate, they are late to this bandwagon and will only get a small slice of the market.

Even more dangerous and silly is to project said market to multiply by a large factor in the long run i.e. making a long term prediction, and hedging the economy against that projection. I mean, don't actually think you can get a few dozen billion dollars share of a market that doesn't exist yet.

In other words, if approved, this proposal will fall flat on it's face when it's time to show results.

*How much is the US health sector losing per year treating medical conditions caused by cannabis anyway?