Isn’t a pot smoker’s money good enough for ya?
The potential (tax) revenue from legalized marijuana production for both individual states and the federal government, numbers which are guesstimated in the graphic below, exceeds three-quarters of a billion dollars (I’m assuming annually).
* image designed by Column Five Media for SloshSpot.com
No one knows what either state or country-wide legalization would truly “look like” yet, but there’s an entire Industry developing and blossoming before our very eyes, and there’s a bit more money to be made out there (than by simple taxation)…
Here’s the Scenario:
I wanna get mine (as does the next guy & gal). I decide to start growing for myself as well as for a few patient-friends.
Since I don’t have a car, I decide to convert my as-luck-would-have-it nearly completely empty/gutted garage into my grow space.
First, Home DePOT gets me for tools, wooden planks & 2×4′s, some metal stuff, tubing, containers, fans, floor covering and some plant nutrients… and you know damn well on the way out the hot dog vendor is getting at least $10 from me as well.
Then I’m off to my favorite hydroponics supply store on my Big Wheel… keepin’ my carbon footprint low – WHAT! Fluorescent lights & various electronic gauges in my shopping cart, I use the same VISA that I had just used earlier in the day – the credit card company then gets a percentage (twice)- and that should trickle down to its employees at some point… I get home and set everything up…
Holy sh** – I knew I forgot something… off to the dispensary to pick up the clones.
The dispensary makes a few bucks on each plant, which helps to pay their employees. The employees then spend that income (some of it probably on medicine) and put it back into the economy again at Panda Express, for example… since it’s raining like a MoFo right now and I’m heavily medicated, I’m taking a taxi – the driver then gets paid from me, and then uses that money at a gas station or at an arsenal perhaps?
Then you have the people who actually cultivate vast quantities (within the limits of Colorado law) – the Big Dog commercial cultivators – generally, people with lots of money like to spend lots of money, so Chevrolet is making money off the Corvette the grower just purchased. The contractor who builds in-ground pools and racquetball courts will be getting paid handsomely when the grower decides to renovate his pad… and on and on… the lucky contractor, the car’s engineer, the credit card company account manager, the line cook at the Chinese restaurant and the gas station attendant all are earning because of me and then spending along with me – simply, there’s billions out there to be made.
