How has legalizing weed impacted CA's crime, pot prices, and State budget?

Leading up to 2016's successful Prop 64, local pols touted promised benefits of legitimizing marijuana cultivation/distribution in CA. Almost seven years later, NPR reflects on these claims, finding that while the State budget is singing hallelujah thanks to legal pot revenue, crime rates and product prices haven't improved.

It's been almost a decade since Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana. That's given economists and other researchers enough time to study the effects of the policy. Here are some of the most interesting findings:

Legalization didn't seem to substantially affect crime rates — Proponents of legalizing weed claimed it would reduce violent crimes. Opponents said it would increase violent crimes. A study by the CATO Institute finds, "Overall, violent crime has neither soared nor plummeted in the wake of marijuana legalization...”

Legalization has barely affected the price of marijuana — Many people believed that marijuana prices would crash after legalization, providing an increased incentive to use it. But a recent study by the CATO institute found prices have barely budged. The price of getting high has stayed high. In California, for example, the price of marijuana actually increased after legalization, before leveling off at about $260 an ounce. Before full legalization, it cost about $250 an ounce. All the states that have legalized marijuana have seen prices converge around that level. "The convergence in prices across states is consistent with the idea that legalization diverts marijuana commerce from underground markets to legal retail shops, allowing retailers to charge a premium as the preferred sources of supply," the authors write....

Legalization is good for state budgets — Tax revenue from legal recreational marijuana has surpassed everyone's expectations. Colorado usually collects more than $20 million a month. In 2020, the state collected a total of $387 million. The California government collects more than $50 million a month. You can find similar stories in other states that have legalized.

This article originally appeared in the National Public Radio. Read the whole thing here.

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