Jon Gettman, marijuana legalization promoter, in 2009California isn’t the only state where expectations for turning marijuana into a cash cow have disappointed promoters. According to a recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts, marijuana tax collections in Colorado soared by 53% from 2015 to 2016, but only 18% from 2017 to 2018. They say the tax structures are overly complicated, the marijuana black market is still thriving, licensing of legal dispensaries is too slow. In California, the inflation took the form of a dubious assertion that marijuana was the state’s most valuable cash crop. The ostensibly hard valuation of the state’s marijuana crop was $14 billion, part of a nationwide marijuana trade worth more than $100 billion a year (including imports).

Source: Los Angeles Times October 17, 2019 18:00 UTC