High Life: Medical Marijuana’s Boomtown
It’s estimated that $143 million in medical marijuana sales have netted $11.4 million in state and local taxes annually, based on registered businesses, California State Board of Equalization spokeswoman Anita Gore said. And those estimates are small compared with those in a 2006 report co-written by California NORML state coordinator Dale Gieringer, which said that Californians consumed between $870 million and $2 billion worth of medical marijuana per year.Of course, marijuana is nothing new to Humboldt County.
Humboldt, part of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, has long been known for its high-grade marijuana crop, which has been immortalized on merchandise, including “Got Humboldt?” T-shirts, skateboards that feature weed and the words “Humboldt Gold,” and an upcoming movie named — what else? — “Humboldt County.” One recent study by Steven Hackett, an economics professor at Humboldt State University, estimated marijuana brings in as much as a half billion dollars to the county’s economy.
For years, Humboldt County has enjoyed the benefits of a booming underground economy. But changes to state laws — such as the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, when voters approved the medical use of marijuana — mean that many engaged in cultivation and sales are trying to follow state medical marijuana laws. Or at least some of them are making an effort, and in doing so are pouring money into local and state tax coffers.
The City of Arcata declined to disclose specific taxes paid on medical marijuana sales by local businesses, calling that “proprietary information.” But the city’s finance director, Janet Luzzi, said one dispensary in town is among Arcata’s top 25 producers of sales tax, and has been for several quarters.
“The economy of Humboldt County would have ceased to exist a long time ago without it,” said [medical marijuana advocate Martha] Devine [who's known to some here as "Granny Green Genes,"] glancing around the plaza. “This county was built on marijuana.” … She’s witnessed the decline of the county’s other traditional industries, like timber and fisheries, and believes marijuana is largely responsible for Humboldt’s progressive culture and thriving businesses.
“I think it’s really kept our economy going,” Devine said.
It will be the economic realities that finally overturn adult marijuana prohibition, much more so than any number of statistics or reports we can produce. It doesn’t matter whether marijuana is harmful or not; we accept very harmful alcohol because it’s financially more lucrative to tax and regulate it than to prohibit it.
Marijuana’s remained illegal because it has fewer users than alcohol, so the profit government makes from prohibition outweighs the profit it could make from taxation and regulation. But with the housing market collapse, states that rely on property tax revenues will feel the pinch. With oil prices going through the roof, consumers will demand a cheaper fuel alternative. Stricter regulations to protect the environment will make hemp farming more attractive as an alternative crop requiring no pesticides, the use of which as a biodiesel fuel will be more carbon-friendly.
Government in general could care less how many lives are ruined by marijuana prohibition, because so many more lives are enhanced through prohibition-related employment. But government in general cares a great deal about the almighty dollar, and when legal marijuana becomes a bigger cash cow than illegal marijuana, we will finally see an end to adult marijuana prohibition.
