"Marijuana Reform and Taxes: How States Tax Adult Use Cannabis and Spend Resulting Revenue"

The title of this post is the title of this terrific new data analysis now available via SSRN and authored by Jana Hrdinova and Dexter Ridgway with the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.   This report was inspired in part by Ohio voters approving in Fall 2023 a statutory ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in the Buckeye State.  But this report should be of interest to folks outside as well as inside of Ohio because it provides a national landscape on the varying tax and revenue structures for marijuana legalization states.  Here is the report's abstract:

On November 7, 2023, Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative (known as Issue 2) to make Ohio the 24th state to legalize recreational marijuana.  The newly enacted statute, which becomes effective on December 7, 2023, establishes Chapter 3780 within the Ohio Revised Code.  Among other things, the new law specifies how recreational marijuana will be taxed and how the resulting tax revenue will be allocated. Members of the Ohio General Assembly and Governor Mike DeWine have expressed interest in possible revisions to the ballot initiative’s tax rate and tax revenue allocations.  This report seeks to inform discussion on these issues by detailing how the Ohio initiative’s tax and revenue structures compare to the other 23 states that have already fully legalized marijuana.