Marijuana legalisation, government revenues, and public budgets

In May 2014, Governor Peter Shumlin signed Act 155, which required the Secretary of Administration to produce a report about various consequences of legalizing marijuana. In response to that legislation, RAND prepared a report for the Secretary.

The report aims to inform the debate but does not make a recommendation about whether Vermont should change its marijuana laws. A finding of special interest for this committee is that Vermonters spend between $125 million and $225 million annually on marijuana. Throughout the report, we noted the difficulties associated with projecting the effects of legalization on state revenues and public budgets, especially when it is unknown what the regime will look like.

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