Marijuana Inc.
By Barry Ritholtz - February 21st, 2009, 9:00PM
Inside America’s Pot Industry
44:05
CNBC
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Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Inside the mind of a CNBC producer….
“We have a financial crisis going on. What can we serve up our viewers? I know, how about a feature on pot? And another on high-end prostitution?”
Before long it will be ultimate fighting….
February 19th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
That’s right, let’s focus the mind of the sheeple on today’s real problems…….
February 21st, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Legalize it, tax it and move on.
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:37 am
Legalize it is the right move,kinda like prohibition was removed in the 30′s. However, too much a peoples drug to ever happen. It is a weed and can be grown by most anyone. No way for corporate and govt to make $ off it. Govt would save big $, but… Anyway is there an over/under on this somewhere?
February 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
It’s so stupid. In this film at the end they say they are spending $10B US annually “fighting” against pot. Yet, you could put all the illegal growing operations out of business, and generate tax revenue instead by legalizing and regulating it’s use. Both Marajuana and the Hemp plant in general are incredibly useful. This is yet one more of the Republican’s failed “wars” that is bankrupting the country and making it less safe.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Too bad the clip isn’t viewable for non-US residents.
As a Dutch citizen I’m always interested in comparing different takes on managing issues with softdrugs. The Netherlands legalized the sale of marijuana through ‘coffeeshops’ in the seventies, but growing marijuana has remained illegal. A Dutch TV show called ‘Reporter’ did an item on softdrugs in the Netherlands. I took some of their figures, that could be extrapolated to come up with a rough estimate of the possible additional tax income for the US government (*I NEVER see it happening though).
Sales exceeded 265.000 kilo’s last year and generated some 400 million euro’s in tax, which is generated by taxing the income of coffeeshop owners directly, since there is no VAT on soft drugs. Dutch tax authority bases income tax for coffeeshop owners on an estimated 100 to 180% realised gross margin.
1 kilo (or K, as those familiar with this business tend to put it) of softdrugs is estimated to cost between 3500 and 5500 euro’s and a gram of weed sold in a coffeeshop will cost you about 7 euro’s.
Dutch population is approx. 16,4 million people. But be sure to factor in some of the 11 million registered Tourists as well, plus a lot of cross border traffic.
Some of the Problems we face:
* addictive behaviour among vulnerable groups (same as everywhere i guess)
* Coffeeshops face a paradox of selling drugs that come in illegally through the back door, but are sold legally across the counter.
* huge problems in border areas where French, Belgian and German visitors try to score a big stash to take home.
* sales (and possession) are limited to 5 grams per person, but who’s checking? (and who cares?)
* illegal large scale (professional) growing of marijuana is more and more controlled by violent criminal organisations as the grip of law enforcement is tightening on casual growers.
Approximately 20 to 40% is grown for the domestic market, the rest is exported. Marijuana is (believed to be) our 3rd agricultural export crop after cucumbers and tomatoes
**As dutch law enforcement has become more active in tracking down and the destruction of marijuana nurseries, prices of marijuana sold in coffeeshops have increased over the past year, due to a decrease in supply. So tax revenues for the Dutch government have probably increased due to ‘fighting against pot’…
You have to consider though: Drug seeking behaviour will always persist while economic crises will come and go.., eventually even this one.