The California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced a new batch of cannabis tax revenue community investments on May 31. This round’s grants for fiscal year 2023-2024, which was given to recipients from the California Community Reinvestment Grants program (CalCRG), includes 30 organizations and a total of $46.6 million.

In order to be chosen to receive funds through the CalCRG program, applicants must meet a variety of criteria. Organization must be organized and in good standing six months before being chosen, must maintain their tax-exempt status with the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board, must be an active registered organization through the California Secretary of State’s Office, and have a physical address in California, among other requirements.

The most recent round of applicants includes two organizations located in Alameda County, two in Contra Costa county, two in Fresno County, one in Humboldt County, nine in Los Angeles County, two in Sacramento County, one in San Diego County, three in the city and county of San Francisco, and two in Santa Cruz County. Additionally, six applicants hold established residence in more than one county.

Among the recipients with the highest amount of funds granted, four received $3 million, including Poverello House in Fresno County, Downtown Women’s Health Center in Los  Angeles County, and Get Lit-Words Ignite, Inc. in Los Angeles County, and PRC in City/County of San Francisco. The lowest granted amount included was Monument Impact in Contra Costa County, which received $600,000.

The program first began accepting applications from organizations in 2018. In April 2020 for FY 2019-2020, GO-Biz awarded $30 million in cannabis tax revenue toward 54 organizations. The following year, FY 2020-2021 awarded 59 organizations which received a portion of $15 million. For FY 2021-2022, 78 organizations received a split amount of $35.5 million. Last year for FY 2022-2023, GO-Biz awarded $50 million to 31 organizations. And then of course, the most recent round for FY 2023-2024 saw $46.6 million given to 30 organizations.

In reviewing the past few years of grant results, the amount of cannabis tax revenue funds has generally increased (the highest being funds granted in FY 2022-2023), although the number of organizations chosen has decreased.

This upcoming August, GO-Biz also confirmed that it would reopen its window for applicants to apply for funds once again, which will be reviewed and likely awarded sometime in spring 2025.

In a recent breakdown of cannabis tax revenue in each U.S. state, Marijuana Policy Project shows that California generated a total of $5.7 billion since legalization began in 2018 through 2023. In the beginning, the state collected $397 million, followed by $638 million in 2019, $1.11 billion in 2020, $1.4 billion in 2021, $1.1 billion in 2022, and $1.1 billion in 2023. This is based on a tax rate of 15% excise tax and standard 7.25% sales tax.

California collected the most cannabis tax revenue, followed by Illinois which generated $1.9 billion between 2020- partial 2024 data. Between 2014-2023, Washington state has collected $4.1 billion in cannabis tax revenue, and between December 2019-partial 2024 data, Michigan has collected $1.2 billion.

The GO-Biz annual cannabis tax revenue grant isn’t the only state effort to allow cannabis tax revenue to go back into the community. It also recently awarded $12 million to “to advance economic justice for populations and communities impacted by cannabis prohibition and the War on Drugs by providing support to local jurisdictions as they promote equity in California and eliminate barriers to enter the newly regulated cannabis industry for equity program applicants and licensees,” the grant description stated.

The funds were split among 10 cities and/or counties for FY 2023-2024. This included the city of Oakland ($3 million), city/county of San Francisco ($2 million), Trinity County ($1.8 million), Mendocino County ($1.8 million), city of Sacramento ($1.2 million), city of San Jose ($1 million), Humboldt County ($600,000), city of Coachella ($350,000), city of Daly City ($75,000), and city of Santa Monica ($40,000).

In March, the San Jose City Council published a press release stating that the funds would help the city develop its local cannabis industry. “We are thrilled to support the City of San José’s efforts to reduce barriers to entry into the legal, regulated cannabis industry,” said GO-Biz Deputy Director of Community and Local Equity Grants, Will Koch. “We look forward to this grant providing the technical assistance and funding to support equity in licensing and cannabis business registrations.”

Director of the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, Nanci Klein, explained the necessity of the program. “San José’s Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs is committed to driving a competitive economy that increases the prosperity and quality of life for all our residents and business owners,” Klein said. “The Cannabis Equity Business Academy seeks to equalize the playing field in this complex and heavily regulated business sector, and I am glad to say that of the 29 San José residents participating in the Academy, 86% of them identify as Asian, African and Native American, Latino or Pacific Islander.”

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Revenue generated by adult-use cannabis markets in the U.S. is showing its true impact on the economy. According to a report  by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) adult-use cannabis markets generated over $20 billion in tax revenue since launching in Colorado and Washington a decade ago.

In November 2012, Colorado legalized marijuana for adults over age 21 by passing Amendment 64 to the Colorado Constitution. Washington state followed suit with a ballot initiative during the same month.

Legal markets launched shortly after, and data on states that have implemented adult-use cannabis markets has been monitored by the MPP since 2014.

“Legalizing cannabis for adults has been a wise investment,” the report reads. “Since 2014 when sales began in Colorado and Washington, legalization policies have provided states a new revenue stream to bolster budgets and fund important services and programs. Through the first quarter of 2024, states have reported a combined total of more than $20 billion in tax revenue from legal, adult-use cannabis sales. In 2023 alone, legalization states generated more than $4 billion in cannabis tax revenue from adult-use sales, which is the most revenue generated by cannabis sales in a single year. In addition to revenue generated for statewide budgets, cities, and towns have also generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue from local adult-use cannabis taxes.”

The report goes through tax revenue collected in each individual state, noting the state markets that are not yet operational. Washington’s tax rate was among the highest in the nation, at a whopping 37% at retail with a 6.5% sales tax.

“Twenty-four states have legalized cannabis possession for adults 21 and older. All but one of them—Virginia—have also legalized, regulated, and taxed cannabis sales. In two legalization states—Delaware and Ohio—sales have not begun yet.”

The economic benefits that come from legalizing adult-use cannabis should be one of the movement’s greatest selling points, the report mentions.

“It is important to note that the financial impact of legalizing and regulating cannabis for adult use is one of the many benefits of legalization,” the report concludes. “Adult-use cannabis legalization has also displaced the criminal market and freed up law enforcement resources to focus on serious crime. In legalization states, authorities actually know who is selling cannabis, where it is being sold, when, and to whom, because cannabis is produced and sold by legitimate, tax-paying businesses instead of drug cartels and criminals. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been spared traumatic arrests, possible incarceration, and criminal records that shut the door of opportunity. Meanwhile, teenagers’ cannabis use rates haven’t increased, and voter support has grown.”

The full report, “Cannabis Tax Revenue in States that Regulate Cannabis for Adult Use,” is available from MPP. 

Aligning with Federal Data

The data appears to align with tax revenue numbers released by the federal government, released in October 2023. The combined totals reveal that states with reported cannabis excise sales tax numbers totaled out to $5.7 billion since Q3 of 2021.

A report published by the U.S. Census Bureau recently shows the progress of cannabis tax revenue numbers for each state. It’s the first report of its kind from the bureau and begins with the Q3 2021.

“The Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue provides quarterly estimates of state and local government tax revenue at a national level, as well as detailed tax revenue data for individual states,” the report explains. “The information contained in this survey is the most current information available on a nationwide basis for government tax collections.”

It aligns with predictions the MPP released last year, according to a report on May 1, 2023 with data regarding cannabis tax revenue generated by states with legalization. Between 2014 and the end of 2022, the report shows that states had collected over $15.1 billion in tax revenue.

Tax revenue from 2022 alone showed more than $3.77 billion collected, which was actually the first year that total state cannabis tax revenues decreased in comparison to 2021 with $3.86 billion. Even with seeing mature cannabis states collecting a decreased amount in cannabis tax revenue and newer states collecting an increased amount, MPP notes that the numbers are influenced by sales comparisons from the pandemic.

The 2023 report also includes a year-by-year total of collected tax revenue as well. In 2014, tax revenue reached $68,503,980 and 2018 was the first year that cannabis tax revenue passed the million mark at $1,308,693,928. 

MPP’s reports show the true potential that adult-use cannabis can bring, in the form of tax revenue.

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The Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee recently passed House Bill 707 in a unanimous vote to propose a regulatory framework for the state’s cannabis legalization.

The measure, which prefiled in March, doesn’t directly legalize adult-use cannabis but it does start the process of building a foundation for reform. The goal, according to Rep. Edmond Jordan who introduced the bill, is to attempt to get HB-707 passed in the legislature in 2024, followed by introducing two other bills in 2025 which would address adult-use possession and cannabis taxes.

Toward the end of a meeting on April 24, Jordan spoke about HB-707 to the House Health and Welfare Committee. “This is a very simple bill,” said Jordan. “What it does…it is for the adult use of cannabis. It sets up the retail side with dispensaries and how we would do that.”

The bill would allow adults over 21 to purchase one ounce of cannabis every day, and would also allow residents to pay $75 per year to obtain a permit to grow up to six plants at home (with a maximum of 12 plants).

Jordan projected that if adult-use cannabis sales were legal, it could potentially provide more than $1 billion in tax revenue over the next 10 years, which includes an estimated $100 million annually going into the state general fund.

Marijuana Policy Project southeast legislative manager, Kevin Caldwell, was also present to discuss the prospect of adult-use cannabis in Louisiana. According to a report created by Vicente law firm’s economic forecaster model created for Louisiana, there are currently 430,000 adult-use cannabis consumers in the state, and by 2033 the industry could be valued at $900 million. “The total regulated market between 2024-2033 would be $5.8 billion,” Caldwell stated, adding that the report believes Louisiana adult-use cannabis could be put in place by 2027, and between 2027-2023, the industry could be valued at $1.17 billion. This was based on Rep. Barbara Freiberg’s adult-use tax bill which was introduced in 2023, and included a proposal of current local and state taxes, with the addition of a 15% excise tax.

The adult-use cannabis industry fiscal impact, according to the report, would also generate $13.4 billion between 2027-2033.

The report utilized data from all 24 states with legalized adult-use cannabis. Caldwell answered numerous questions from Rep. Rhonda Butler about how the report developed the projected numbers, and the effects of crime increasing in legal states (research shows that it hasn’t led to an increase in crime), and the regulation of potency.

A total of 17 amendments for HB-707 were also adopted during the meeting, including transferring management of a cannabis program from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), the removal of a cap on licenses that the LDF can issue to cultivators, processors, and manufacturers, changes a license requirement regarding stakeholder disqualification if they were guilty of or plead guilty to a cannabis-related conviction, and removing a penalty for civil violations.

One individual spoke in opposition about the bill in regard to claims about the impact of cannabis use among youth. “We don’t need to bring this scourge into our state. We just don’t,” they said.

Jordan returned to the podium to speak about the reality of cannabis in Louisiana. “Look, we’re not bringing this into the state, it’s already here. So let’s not ignore what we already have here,” Jordan explained. “The real issue is: do we want to regulate it, do we want to make it safer for our kids, do we want to make sure that we don’t have this laced with fentanyl in some grey or illegal market. I think if we bring it above ground, we regulate it, we’re able to test it, we’re able to do all these other things to make sure that it’s safe, it’s gonna make it better for our kids.”

Jordan asked that the bill be sent to the floor for further discussion, where he can present evidence that contradicts what the opposition discussed. Ultimately the committee voted 10-0 to approve HB-707.

Successful cannabis legislation has been hit or miss over the past few years in Louisiana. In April 2023, a bill to decriminalize cannabis was killed in committee before it was able to reach the House floor. In June 2023, House Bill 286 was signed by Gov. Jeff Landry, which implemented expungements for those who have previously been convicted of cannabis possession. In March 2024, the state’s 10th medical cannabis dispensary opened.

Also recently in March 2024, Louisiana police reported that rats had infiltrated confiscated cannabis and were eating all of the flower. AP News spoke with a police superintendent who said that the “uncleanliness is off the charts,” at that particular building, and it’s not the janitorial staff’s fault.

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The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) released a report on May 1 with data regarding cannabis tax revenue generated by states with legalization. Between 2014 and the end of 2022, the report shows that states had collected over $15.1 billion in tax revenue.

According to MPP President and CEO Toi Hutchinson, states with legalization are seeing great benefits from cannabis sales. “States that have made the decision to legalize and regulate cannabis are benefiting from hundreds of millions in tax revenue each year,” Hutchinson said in a press release. “These new streams of revenue are helping to fund crucial social services and programs across the country, such as education, alcohol and drug treatment, veterans’ services, job training, and reinvestment in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the war on cannabis. The states that lag behind will not only be doing a disservice to their constituents—they will also be leaving money on the table.”

Tax revenue from 2022 alone showed more than $3.77 billion collected, which was actually the first year that total state cannabis tax revenues decreased in comparison to 2021 with $3.86 billion. Even with seeing mature cannabis states collecting a decreased amount in cannabis tax revenue and newer states collecting an increased amount, MPP notes that the numbers are influenced by sales comparisons from the pandemic. “It is important to note that while ’22 figures were down from ’21 in more mature markets, they were still higher than any year pre-COVID for each state.”

MPP cited Vicente LLP Director of Economics and Research Andrew Livingston, who elaborated on the demand of cannabis during the pandemic. “While 2022 cannabis taxes are lower in some established markets than they were in 2021, it’s important to know how COVID-19 and pandemic initiated lockdown orders increased cannabis demand,” Livingston stated. “People could not spend their money going to concerts, going out to dinner, or vacation travel. So many people increased their consumption of consumer packaged goods. Cannabis was a product that could still be purchased and made the difficulty of staying at home for months on end watching TV shows and movies a bit more enjoyable.”

MPP’s tax revenue report shows the individual 2022 tax revenue for 16 states. Among the highest amounts included California ($1,074,560,287), Illinois ($562,119,019), Washington ($529,443,420), Michigan ($326,049,074), and Colorado ($305,034,034). On the lower end were states including Rhode Island ($579,439), Vermont ($2,363,000), New Jersey ($20,139,655), Maine ($25,329,534), New Mexico ($36,684,235), Montana ($41,989,466).

The report also includes a year-by-year total of collected tax revenue as well. In 2014, tax revenue reached $68,503,980 and 2018 was the first year that cannabis tax revenue passed the million mark at $1,308,693,928. During the pandemic, tax revenue soared to $2,814,837,199 in 2020, $3,866,974,690 in 2021, and dipped slightly to $3,774,783,548 in 2022.

While cannabis tax revenue is at an all-time high, the topic of taxes has long been a concern for consumers and business owners. Most recently on April 17, Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer introduced legislation called the Small Business Tax Equity Act which would allow cannabis businesses to remain in compliance with state law by creating an exception to Internal Revenue Code Section 280e.

“State-legal cannabis businesses are denied equal treatment under 280E. They cannot fully deduct the cost of doing business which means they pay two or three times as much as a similar non-cannabis business,” Blumenauer said. “This grotesquely unfair treatment incentivizes people to cut corners. If Congress wants to get serious about supporting small businesses and ending the illicit cannabis market, it is commonsense that we allow legal cannabis operations to deduct business expenses, just like any other industry.”

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On Jan. 11, members from Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, and ACLU of Hawaii, spoke at a press conference held at the capitol in Honolulu. The meeting was prompted by Hawaii Rep. Jeanné Kapela to announce her cannabis legislation which will target criminal justice reform and other important considerations.

First up was DeVaughn Ward, MPP’s Senior Legislative Counsel, who started the conference by speaking about the importance of introducing successful legislation as soon as possible. “Marijuana prohibition has caused immeasurable harm to our communities, particularly communities of color,” said Ward. “Cannabis legalization is an opportunity to stop the harm to our residents and the waste of limited public safety resources.”

Next, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii’s Nikos Leverenz described upcoming cannabis legislation as a “critical opportunity” for legislators to address the needs of those affected by the War on Drugs. “Hawaii’s cannabis policy should center the needs of those damaged by the continued criminalization of cannabis and draconian drug law enforcement,” said Leverenz. “At the same time, a properly regulated adult-use market will create many quality jobs and business opportunities across the state, including those related to cannabis tourism, craft cannabis, and cannabis science.”

He also noted that in his official statement to the press, he asked that if the red state of Missouri can legalize cannabis, what’s stopping Hawaii from moving forward. He explained that cannabis plants would thrive in Hawaii, especially if they brought in craft cannabis growers, the industry could contribute to a strong tourism sector for the state. “Hawaii has a rare opportunity this year to move forward and to protect public health and to create quality jobs and economic opportunity across the state, including our neighbor island communities,” he concluded.

George Cordero from ACLU Hawaii spoke on the inhumane conditions of confinement in overpopulated Hawaii prisons due to low-level cannabis convictions, and the long-term effects of having cannabis on a personal record. “Having a marijuana conviction on your record can make it extremely difficult to get employment, apply for a credit card, secure housing, for work the rest of your life,” Cordero said. “This is why clearing people’s marijuana convictions is a necessary condition to this legalization measure.”

Kapela took the stage. “We all know, and Hawaii’s people know, that it is high time to legalize recreational cannabis use for adults in Hawaii. This year we stand on the precipice of history,” she explained. “Following the recommendations of a task force devoted to addressing cannabis policy, we now have a roadmap for legalizing recreational cannabis in our islands,” Kapela said, referring to a report published by the Hawaii Department of Health cannabis task force in December 2022.

Kapela did not specify a timeline for when her bill would be proposed, but explained a few key points, including helping the state’s mass incarceration dilemma by issuing a mass expungement program. “Social equity. People. That is what forms the heart of our proposal,” she explained.

Previously in March 2021, the Hawaii Senate approved two cannabis reform bills that ultimately did not move forward.

Former Hawaii Gov. David Ige was not a stark supporter of cannabis legalization, and often stated his hesitancy because of its federally illegal status. However, he did allow a bill to be passed without his signature in January 2020, which decriminalized cannabis in the state.
However, newly elected Gov. Josh Green said in November 2022 that he would sign a legalization bill. “I think that people already have moved past that culturally as a concern,” Green said during a debate in October 2022. “But here’s what I would do. First of all, if marijuana is legalized, it should be very carefully monitored, and only done like cigarettes, or I’ve been very careful to regulate tobacco over the years. We should take the $30 to $40 million of taxes we would get from that and invest in the development and recreation of our mental healthcare system for the good of all.”

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The Louisiana state Senate voted 26-8 on Wednesday to approve a bill that would protect public employees who use medical cannabis from job discrimination. The measure, House Bill 988, was approved by the Louisiana House of Representatives last week and now heads to the desk of Governor John Bel Edwards for his consideration.

Under the bill, public employees using medical cannabis with a doctor’s recommendation and in accordance with state law are protected from being fired for using medical pot. The bill also protects medical cannabis patients who are applying for state positions from being denied employment or other job discrimination based on their use of cannabis.

“This would basically be a first step to having laws on the books to protect people who have medical marijuana cards,” state Representative Mandy Landry, the sponsor of the bill, said last month after introducing the bill.

The bill does not apply to private employers or local government agencies, including police and fire departments. Landry told reporters that the legislation was limited to state employees to address likely opposition from politically powerful law enforcement and business lobbyists in the state Capitol.

Medical Cannabis an Alternative to Opioids in Louisiana

The Louisiana House of Representatives approved the bill by a vote of 60-32 on May 24. While the bill was up for debate in the House, Landry told her colleagues that the legislation would help prevent state workers from becoming addicted to opioids, an argument that was echoed in the upper body of the state legislature by Senator Stewart Cathey.

“There are a lot of people who don’t want to take opioids for their long-term PTSD and pain management because of the high possibility of addiction to opioids,” Landry said when the bill came up in a House committee last month. “This has proved to be a better option than them.”

The bill faced opposition from some lawmakers in the House, who argued that the legislature should not be drafting policy for state workers. Representative Larry Frieman said that such tasks should be carried out by the state Department of Administration. Jacques Berry, the communications director for the agency, noted that the Department of Administration has policies that protect its employees that use medical cannabis. But he added that the department does not have the authority to create employment policy for all state agencies.

State Representative Ed Larvadain supported the bill, suggesting that more work on cannabis policy reform is yet to come.

“We’re going to have to change how we deal with medical marijuana,” Larvadain said. “But this is a first step.”

Larvadain offered to work with Landry in the future to find a path that makes law enforcement officers and firefighters also eligible to use medical cannabis.

“A lot of those men and women have chronic pains because over the years they’ve had to climb through windows and police officers have been abused,” Larvadain said.

Medical cannabis advocates including Kevin Caldwell of the Marijuana Policy Project also supported the bill.

“The fact is we have an opioid problem that gets discussed in this building all the time,” Caldwell said. “We are seeing that for a lot of patients, medical cannabis is an exit strategy.”

Tony Landry of the Veterans Action Council noted that police officers and firefighters are not able to take CBD because of the risk that trace amounts of THC “can accumulate in your body over time and cause a positive test. I’m in favor of this bill, and I just think we need to leave no employee behind.”

Louisiana legalized medical cannabis for patients with debilitating medical conditions in 2015, and sales of medicinal weed began in the state in 2019. The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy reports that the state has more than 43,000 registered medical cannabis patients. Last year, the governor signed legislation to decriminalize possession of up to 14 grams of pot, making such offenses only punishable by a fine of up to $100.

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The Rhode Island General Assembly approved legislation to legalize recreational pot on Tuesday, culminating years of work by lawmakers and activists to reform the state’s cannabis policy. Democratic Governor Dan McKee is expected to sign the legislation Wednesday afternoon, according to media reports, making Rhode Island the 19th state in the nation to legalize cannabis for use by adults.

After lawmakers passed the bill, Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey thanked his colleagues for their work on the issue, which has resulted in a recreational pot legalization bill to be introduced in the General Assembly every year since 2011.

“This is a truly momentous day for Rhode Island. I’m deeply grateful to Senator Miller for his years of hard work and leadership on this issue, and I’m incredibly proud to have been part of reaching this point,” McCaffrey said, as quoted by the Providence Journal. “Ending cannabis prohibition helps us right past wrongs while creating new opportunities for all Rhode Islanders. This is the right move, at the right time, for our state.”

The legislation legalizes possession of up to one ounce of cannabis by adults aged 21 and older. Possession by adults of up to 10 ounces is permitted in a private home, as is the cultivation of up to three mature and three immature cannabis plants.

The bill also includes provisions to expunge past convictions for cannabis possession offenses including civil violations, misdemeanors, and felonies. According to an analysis of the impact of the legislation by representatives of the state court system, as many as 27,000 cases where weed possession was the only charge are eligible for expungement. Court spokesman Craig Berke said last week that “thousands more” cases in which cannabis possession was one of multiple charges could also qualify for relief. The bill gives the state’s courts until July 1, 2024, to automatically expunge the records of all who are eligible.

Recreational Pot Sales Begin December 1

Commercial cannabis cultivation and commerce are also legalized by the legislation, with regulated sales of recreational weed slated to begin on December 1. An earlier version of the measure called for adult-use pot sales to begin on October 1. House Finance Committee Chairman Marvin Abney said the final bill was the product of “months of intense negotiation and collaboration with numerous stakeholders.”

“This bill represents a solid foundation for the regulation of the cannabis industry within our state,” said Abney. “This is a good, strong, fair and equitable bill.”

The legalization bill faced some opposition in both the Senate and House of Representatives, including fears of impaired driving on the state’s roadways. Representative David Place offered an amendment to set cannabis taxes to mirror the state’s 7% tax rate, but the proposal was not approved.

“The primary benefit of legalization, to my mind, is the elimination of the black market and all the corresponding costs that go along with the black market,” Place said. “And we don’t do that with this bill.”

Opposition from representatives of Rhode Island businesses centered on fears that workers would be impaired on the job. Jared Moffat, states campaigns manager for the advocacy group the Marijuana Policy Project, said that employers are protected by the legislation.

“Nothing in the legalization bill requires employees to tolerate marijuana use or impairment on the job or in the workplace,” Moffat said. “In other words, if you catch an employee using marijuana, employers don’t have to accommodate that behavior, and there are typically obvious signs that someone is impaired by marijuana.”

Additionally, employers whose employees perform work that is “hazardous, dangerous or essential to public welfare and safety” may prohibit workers from using cannabis within 24 hours of their shift. Moffat added that employees who use cannabis on personal time should not be discriminated against, similar to protections that prevent an employee from being “disciplined or fired because they enjoy a glass of wine or a cocktail on the weekend.”

Cannabis possession will become legal as soon as McKee signs the legislation on Wednesday afternoon. Sales of recreational pot are expected to begin on December 1 at the state’s three existing medical cannabis dispensaries. The bill also authorizes up to six regional recreational cannabis retailers.

“Currently, only the three original licensed compassion centers are up and running, but the sponsors believe it’s possible that at least some of the six more that were recently approved will be open by Dec. 1, and that it is realistic to expect the hybrid licenses that will allow them to sell to recreational users will be approved by then,” reads a statement from the General Assembly.

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With recreational pot now legal in 18 states, cannabis is a bona fide profitable cash crop. In November, Leafly Holdings, Inc. released its first ever “Cannabis Harvest Report” that examined “farm licenses and production in the 11 states that have legal adult-use stores open and operating.” 

“Cannabis is medically legal in 37 states, but for purposes of this report we focused on operating adult-use states—the 11 states where any adult can walk into a licensed store and buy cannabis—for salience to the general public,” the report’s authors wrote. “In those 11 adult-use states, cannabis supports 13,042 licensed farms that harvested 2,278 metric tons of marijuana last year. That amount would fill 57 Olympic swimming pools, or over 11,000 dump trucks stretching for 36 miles—and it’s returning $6,175,000,000 to American farmers every year.”

That figure of a little more than $6 billion “ranks (cannabis) as the fifth most valuable crop in the United States,” trailing corn ($61 billion), soybeans ($46 billion), hay ($17.3 billion), and wheat ($9.3 billion) but outpacing cotton ($4.7 billion), rice ($3.1 billion), and peanuts ($1.3 billion).

The report said that in five of the states where adult-use cannabis sales are legal—Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon—cannabis is actually the most valuable crop.

“In each of the 11 states with adult-use retail stores operating, cannabis ranks no lower than fifth in terms of agricultural crop value—often within two years of the first stores opening. In Alaska, the cannabis crop is worth more than twice as much as all other agricultural products combined,” the report’s authors wrote.

The goal of the harvest report, Leafly said, was to “quantify annual cannabis production in operational adult-use states, just like the USDA’s Economic Research Service does for all non-cannabis crops.”

“The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) tracks annual yields, prices, and estimated values for nearly every commercial crop grown in America. But the USDA does not track legal cannabis due to the plant’s status as a Schedule I drug,” the authors wrote. “That’s just weird because in legal adult-use states, cannabis is consistently one of the highest-value crops in the field.”

“We also believe it’s time to end the stigma attached to cannabis farming. Far too many state agricultural agencies and policymakers still treat cannabis growers with contempt,” they continued. “Some right-to-farm laws specifically exclude cannabis farming. Most cannabis farmers must—by law—hide their crops from public view, as if the mere sight of a fan leaf might induce intoxication. These unfair and unnecessary measures are taken against a legal crop that’s one of the top agricultural products in every adult-use state. Cannabis farmers are farmers, period.”

The report’s findings echo a study released last month. That research, which came via the Marijuana Policy Project, found that the 11 states with licensed adult-use cannabis retailers generated more than $3.7 billion in total revenue in 2021.

That figure amounted to a revenue increase of 34% from recreational cannabis in those states compared with 2020.

“The legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults has generated billions of dollars in tax revenue, funded important services and programs at the state level, and created thousands of jobs across the country. Meanwhile, the states that lag behind continue to waste government resources on enforcing archaic cannabis laws that harm far too many Americans,” said Toi Hutchinson, the president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, who added that the findings serve as “further evidence that ending cannabis prohibition offers tremendous financial benefits for state governments.”

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Three months in, the new adult-use cannabis program in Montana has generated tens of millions of dollars in sales, netting $8.7 million in tax revenue.

That comes via the state’s Department of Revenue, which detailed recreational pot sales in the state for the first quarter of the year.

In total, the adult-use market that launched at the start of the year has produced $43,537,110.29 in sales. For comparison, the state’s medical cannabis program generated $29,373,731.81 worth of sales during the same time period.

Montana voters legalized recreational cannabis for adults during the 2020 election, one of four states to end pot prohibition on the ballot that year (Arizona, South Dakota and New Jersey were the other three).

Getting the program ready in time for the start of this year was tight.

Officials in the state didn’t propose their final rules to govern the new regulated cannabis marketplace until October, leaving the Department of Revenue very little time to iron out all the regulations.

“The deadlines are aggressive,” Kristan Barbour, administrator of the Department of Revenue’s Cannabis Control Division, said at the time. “Really, the rules are our biggest challenge.”

“Our focus was really to be business-friendly and to try to work with the industry in a fashion that makes the rules adaptable to their current business structure and that they’ll be able to evolve into without a whole lot of pain,” Barbour added.

But despite the time constraints, the regulated cannabis market was open for business as scheduled on New Year’s Day.

Local television station KTVH reported that an “estimated 380 dispensaries in 29 counties are now able to sell marijuana to both medical and recreational customers.” In the program’s opening weekend at the beginning of January, Montana reported more than $1.5 million in cannabis sales.

The legalization effort in the United States has been buoyed by the economic incentives of regulating sales of pot. A report issued this week by the Marijuana Policy Project drove that point home, revealing that states that legalized adult-use cannabis sales generated more than $3.7 billion in total revenue last year.

That figure represented a 34% uptick from 2020, when states with recreational pot sales generated $2,766,027,570 in revenue. Since 2014, states have generated $11.2 billion in tax revenue from adult-use cannabis sales, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

“The legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults has generated billions of dollars in tax revenue, funded important services and programs at the state level, and created thousands of jobs across the country. Meanwhile, the states that lag behind continue to waste government resources on enforcing archaic cannabis laws that harm far too many Americans,” said Toi Hutchinson, the president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, who said that the group’s findings serve as “further evidence that ending cannabis prohibition offers tremendous financial benefits for state governments.”

Legalization isn’t just about the money brought in, of course. States that have ended prohibition on pot have also sought to remedy the past injustices brought on by the War on Drugs.

Last month, the Montana Supreme Court issued temporary rules for procedures through which individuals may have past cannabis-related convictions expunged from their records.

The state’s new cannabis law says “anyone convicted of an offense that would now be legal in the state can petition to have their conviction removed from their record, get a lesser sentence for it or reclassify it to a lesser offense,” according to local television station KPAX.

In the rules laid out last month, the state Supreme Court made it clear that they may submit their request for expungement to the court where they were originally sentenced.

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States that have legalized recreational cannabis sales for adults collectively generated more than $3.7 billion in revenue last year, according to a new report from the Marijuana Policy Project.

The findings, released on Wednesday, amount to a 34% increase in revenue from adult-use sales compared to 2020 –– continuing an upward trajectory dating back to 2014, when recreational pot sales began in Colorado and Washington, the first two states to end prohibition on pot use for adults.

Today, 18 states have legalized adult-use cannabis sales. The latest report from the Marijuana Policy Project was based on sales figures from the 11 states that had licensed pot retailers open for business in 2021.

The total revenue tally of $3,715,994,252 does not include medical cannabis sales.

Toi Hutchinson, the president and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, said that the latest report provides “further evidence that ending cannabis prohibition offers tremendous financial benefits for state governments.”

“The legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults has generated billions of dollars in tax revenue, funded important services and programs at the state level, and created thousands of jobs across the country. Meanwhile, the states that lag behind continue to waste government resources on enforcing archaic cannabis laws that harm far too many Americans,” said Hutchinson, who left her post as a senior cannabis adviser to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker late last year to take the helm at the advocacy organization.

The Marijuana Policy Project provided state-by-state revenue totals for last year’s recreational cannabis sales, with California raking it the most by far:

    •    Alaska: $28,900,231 

    •    Arizona: $153,824,757

    •    California: $1,294,632,799 

    •    Colorado: $396,157,005

    •    Illinois: $424,206,703

    •    Maine: $12,362,622

    •    Massachusetts: $227,474,842 

    •    Michigan: $209,912,278 

    •    Nevada: $159,885,501

    •    Oregon: $177,773,944 

    •    Washington: $630,863,570

Last year’s revenue total represented a big jump from 2020, which saw $2,766,027,570 in recreational pot revenue generated. And that represented a significant increase from 2019, when there was $1,707,204,090 in revenue brought in.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, “states reported a combined total of $11.2 billion in tax revenue from legal, adult-use cannabis sales since 2014 when sales began in Colorado and Washington state.”

As the group explained, “states with legal, adult-use cannabis sales, tax revenues can be allocated for social services and programs,” which can include “funding education, school construction, early literacy, public libraries, bullying prevention, behavioral health, alcohol and drug treatment, veterans’ services, conservation, job training, conviction expungement expenses, and reinvestment in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the war on cannabis, among many others.”

“Legalizing cannabis for adults has been a wise investment…In addition to revenue generated for statewide budgets, cities and towns have also generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in new revenue from local adult-use cannabis taxes,” the Marijuana Policy Project said in its analysis.

One state that will be included in next year’s report will be New Mexico, which just launched adult-use cannabis sales last week.

The state reported more than $3 million in recreational pot sales in the opening weekend.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has touted legalization as a potential economic driver for the state.

“As we look to rebound from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, entrepreneurs will benefit from this great opportunity to create lucrative new enterprises, the state and local governments will benefit from the added revenue and, importantly, workers will benefit from the chance to land new types of jobs and build careers,” Lujan Grisham said last year after signing the legalization bill into law.

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