Last month, Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado released the first official estimate on what the Mile High State expects to make from legal marijuana sales.
The result? According the Associated Press, “Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations.” Booya!
After retail sales started up January 1, legal dope dealers have been doing gangbusters business, and the gov’nor’s office predicts that sales will top $610 million in the upcoming fiscal year, pumping some $98 million into state coffers. With the revenues from the 12.9 per cent sales tax on recreational grass earmarked for “substance abuse prevention, youth marijuana use prevention and other priorities,” it’s damn difficult to argue against legalized dope.
And while commercial sales haven’t started up over on the west coast in Washington yet, the governor’s office there expects much the same result, predicting “new legal recreational marijuana market will bring nearly $190 million to state coffers over four years starting in mid-2015.”
Which, of course, is fucking awesome. In a country struggling to get back on its feet, ending an outdated and immoral drug war that’s already as good as lost is a leap in the right direction. With other states now looking to do the same — even ass-backwards Florida — it seems like only a matter of time before the federal US position on marijuana comes around. And with that in mind, it’s incomprehensible to look at our own country’s national drug policy and not feel deep, dark shame.
From mandatory minimum sentencing to fucking with Health Canada’s medical marijuana system to making operating harm reduction services for drug users a nightmare, our federal government is shameless in their disregard for evidence-based drug policy. It’s as though they’re taking every policy that failed in the US and trying to polish the turd into something that will work in Canada. But it wasn’t always this way.
There was a time in the mid-Aughts when it seemed sensible drug policy would soon prevail in Canada, and that maybe forward-thinking Canadian provinces could get a jump on the competition that was even then brewing south of border in California, Washington and other states. It seemed like we could become a world leader in an industry that was set to boom. But that time is long gone, and we’re worse off for it.
Not only are we keeping ourselves in the dark ages with regard to policy, but we’re letting a massive economic opportunity pass by while we look the other way and diddle our nethers.
British Columbia has a global reputation when it comes to marijuana production, though that reputation is waning thanks to California’s forward-thinking electric lettuce policy. They also have abundant energy resources. Manitoba, Quebec and Labrador and Newfoundland all have abundant, cheap Hydro electricity perfect for year-round indoor grow operations. Albertan entrepreneurs are already chomping at the bit to get into the medical marijuana game.
Seriously, what in the sweet fuck are we waiting for? And why is a government that claims to champion free enterprise standing so firmly and irresolutely in the way?