Page 59 - DECO405_MANAGERIAL_ECONOMICS

Managerial Economics

Notes

Caselet Should Canada Legalise Marijuana?

he war on drugs is an expensive battle, as a great deal of resources go into catching
those who buy or sell illegal drugs on the black market, prosecuting them in court,
Tand housing them in jail. These costs seem particularly exorbitant when dealing
with the drug marijuana, as it is widely used, and is likely no more harmful than currently
legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. There's another cost to the war on drugs, however,
which is the revenue lost by governments who cannot collect taxes on illegal drugs. In a
recent study for the Fraser Institute, Canada, Economist Stephen T. Easton attempted to
calculate how much tax revenue the government of the country could gain by legalising
marijuana.
The study estimates that the average price of 0.5 grams (a unit) of marijuana sold for $8.60
on the street, while its cost of production was only $1.70. In a free market, a $6.90 profit for
a unit of marijuana would not last for long. Entrepreneurs noticing the great profits to be
made in the marijuana market would start their own grow operations, increasing the
supply of marijuana on the street, which would cause the street price of the drug to fall to
a level much closer to the cost of production. Of course, this doesn't happen because the
product is illegal; the prospect of jail time deters many entrepreneurs and the occasional
drug bust ensures that the supply stays relatively low. We can consider much of this $6.90
per unit of marijuana profit a risk-premium for participating in the underground economy.
Unfortunately, this risk premium is making a lot of criminals, many of whom have ties to
organized crime, very wealthy.

Stephen T. Easton argues that if marijuana was legalized, we could transfer these excess
profits caused by the risk-premium from these grow operations to the government:
If we substitute a tax on marijuana cigarettes equal to the difference between the local
production cost and the street price people currently pay – that is, transfer the revenue
from the current producers and marketers (many of whom work with organized crime) to
the government, leaving all other marketing and transportation issues aside we would
have revenue of (say) $7 per [unit]. If you could collect on every cigarette and ignore the
transportation, marketing, and advertising costs, this comes to over $2 billion on Canadian
sales and substantially more from an export tax, and you forego the costs of enforcement
and deploy your policing assets elsewhere.
One interesting thing to note from such a scheme is that the street price of marijuana stays
exactly the same, so the quantity demanded should remain the same as the price is
unchanged. However, it's quite likely that the demand for marijuana would change from
legalization. We saw that there was a risk in selling marijuana, but since drug laws often
target both the buyer and the seller, there is also a risk (albeit smaller) to the consumer
interested in buying marijuana. Legalization would eliminate this risk, causing the demand
to rise. This is a mixed bag from a public policy standpoint: Increased marijuana use can
have ill effects on the health of the population but the increased sales bring in more
revenue for the government. However, if legalized, governments can control how much
marijuana is consumed by increasing or decreasing the taxes on the product. There is a
limit to this, however, as setting taxes too high will cause marijuana growers to sell on the
black market to avoid excessive taxation.
When considering legalizing marijuana, there are many economic, health, and social
issues we must analyze. One economic study will not be the basis of Canada's public
policy decisions, but Easton's research does conclusively show that there are economic
benefits in the legalization of marijuana. With governments scrambling to find new sources
of revenue to pay for important social objectives such as health care and education expect
to see the idea raised in Parliament sooner rather than later.

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