Austin, TX: The legalization of marijuana use and sales in Texas would yield over a billion dollars in new tax revenue, create tens of thousands of new jobs, and lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal justice savings, according to an analysis by the law firm Vincente Sederberg LLP.
The analysis estimates that regulating the commercial market in the state would yield biennium tax revenue of more than $1.1 billion dollars, create up to 40,000 jobs, and allow for the reprioritization of $31 million in criminal justice costs.
Texas police in 2018 made nearly 100,000 arrests for marijuana violations – the highest total of any state in the nation.
“A regulated cannabis market would be an economic boon for the Lone Star State,” said Shawn Hauser, a partner at Vicente Sederberg who heads the firm’s Austin office. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue and tens of thousands of new jobs would be especially helpful in overcoming the losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas is leaving an enormous amount of money on the table by keeping cannabis illegal.”
For more information, contact Texas NORML. Text of the report, “The Economic Benefits of Regulating and Taxing Cannabis in Texas: An analysis of potential new revenue, job growth, and savings,” is online.