If Marijuana Was To Become Legal

[Benton]

(09-11-2017, 11:29 AM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: With marijuana legal in a few states and those selling it are making money hand over fist that there would be a "Pot Lobby" by now with a lot of money to buy legislation to get marijuana legal.

Couple quick numbers (quick as in quick Google search, didn't research how accurate they are, but gives you an idea)/

In 2016, the marijuana industry had about $6.7 billion in sales.

Lot of money? Not compared to pharma.

In 2016, Humira alone had $16 billion in worldwide sales. One drug, about three times the entire North American legal marijuana market.

US spending in 2016 was about $450 billion on pharmaceuticals. Best i could tell, that doesn't include OTC drugs like aspirin (which presumably would take a hit — pun intended — also). Two of your biggest drug companies made more than $100 billion in revenue (not sales, revenue). Pfizer raked in $52 billion after expenses and taxes (lol, like they paid any). Same year, Johnson & Johnson made $72 billion in revenue (granted, I think the bulk of their money is OTC). 

The marijuana industry last year had about the same amount in total sales as the tobacco industry paid in taxes during its peak (around $9 billion IIRC). Not taxes paid, just sales; so the tax impact of pot is (right now) much smaller. Tobacco was able to hang on as long as it did without a lot of government intervention because it could massively bribe lawmakers, and many southern lawmakers needed its tax revenue. Marijuana isn't big enough to bribe yet, or factor too much into tax budgets. And it's a long way from being able to even bribe as effectively as a single pharma company like Pfizer or Merck. 

One pro-marijuana advocate I did a story with 5-6 years ago estimated it would be 15-20 years before federal intervention. Mainly because — according to her — the economy was only going to get worse and people won't be able to afford $20 a pill to not be depressed about not having enough money to spend $20 on a pill.