Pubdate: Wed, 12 Mar 2014
Source: Metro (Ottawa, CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Metro
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Ottawa
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4032
Author: Scott Taylor

LEGAL POT WOULD MEAN WINDFALL FOR PROVINCE

Cha-ching! Tax grab could mean $5 million a month: Economist

An Ontario-based economist says that Colorado has proven what many
have been saying all along: Legalize marijuana, regulate it and the
tax dollars will come flowing in.

It's been estimated that in the first month of legalized weed sales,
the state made a cool $2.1 million in taxes. That's outside of the
$1.4 million it made taxing medicinal marijuana.

Richard Ivey School of Business associate professor Mike Moffatt said
the tax works out to about 40 cents for each of Colorado's 5.2 million
people.

"Assuming the usage would be similar among Ontario's almost 13 million
people, the tax the government would earn would be around (a) lofty $5
million," he said.

That's for a single month, equating to $60 million a
year.

He cited a Fraser Institute report that stated the federal government
could realize over a billion dollars a year if pot was legalized.

But Conservative MP Ed Holder said he couldn't disagree more with the
figures. Price, he said, will still create competition between the
legal outlets and drug dealers.

"That does not go away because it's been legalized," he said. "The
underground economy does not go away."

A Hi-Times manager, Mike Gin, who's been in the head shop business for
25 years, argued it only makes sense for the government to cash in.

"It's a revenue generator, so why lose the money if they can tax it?"
he asked.

"They could regulate it like cigarettes so that people under a certain
age couldn't buy it."
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MAP posted-by: Matt