Posted by Bryce Crawford on Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:36 AM
If California legalizes marijuana for personal use, prices for the drug could fall from an average of $375 per ounce, to as low as $38 per ounce, says a study from the nonpartisan RAND Drug Policy Research Center, and reported by the Associated Press.
Besides prices, RAND attempted to accurately gauge the financial impact legalized marijuana would have on the state’s economy. The California Board of Equalization has previously estimated an additional $1.4 billion in revenue would be generated if Proposition 19 passes; RAND, however, says the impact could be much greater.
The researchers said legalization could bring substantially more than $1.4 billion in new revenue if California sees an influx of “marijuana tourism” similar to Amsterdam’s, where pot is legally sold at coffee shops, and if out-of-state dealers purchase California cannabis to sell back home.”You would certainly guess that if it’s cheaper to produce it in California legally than to import it from Mexico, it would reduce imports from Mexico,” Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University who also worked on the study, said. “Presumably, it would decrease them a lot.”
While it’s a non-issue for Coloradans at the moment, its a certainty that rock bottom prices just a few states away would affect the price of local medical marijuana.