Oregon just celebrated the third anniversary of cannabis legalization, and I think it’s safe to say it’s been a success. While it’s had a negative impact on the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, and our state’s nearly 30,000 licensed growers are currently struggling with a saturated market and depressed prices for their product—not to mention our lack of social consumption spaces and events, which still boggles my mind—the many benefits of our legal cannabis market still outweigh the negatives.
Connecticut, Michigan, and Ohio are expected to vote on similar legalization programs in November. Meanwhile, conversations about national legalization continue to get louder, and predictions for industry values continues to skyrocket. A recent report by BDS Analytics predicts a US cannabis market value of $23.4 billion by 2022, and a 22.3 percent annual compound growth rate.
In fact, it’s going so well, some people are even asking whether we should legalize, regulate, and tax all drugs. (“Hell yeah, let’s do it! Let’s totally do it now, bro!” hoarsely shouted the worst guy you went to college with.) Mexico’s newly elected president even said he will give carte blanche to his future interior minister to explore legalization of all drugs to curtail Mexico’s cartel-related violence, which has resulted in more than 200,000 murders since 2006.
A recent paper by a Harvard-based researcher and published by the Cato Institute gives insight to the financial picture: Legalizing all drugs would generate more than $100 billion in savings and taxes annually, benefitting federal, state, and local governments.
