Money doesn’t grow on trees

Legalized marijuana could help Oklahoma’s budget problems, but it’s not the cure-all

The movement to legalize marijuana is riding high. This year voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada joined Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska in legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, while Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota voted to allow medical marijuana.

Oklahoma narrowly missed out joining the latter group this year. Proponents gathered enough signatures to put medical marijuana on the ballot as SQ 788, but they submitted the signatures too late to make the 2016 elections. SQ 788 will be scheduled for a vote by 2018 at the latest.

Advocates for Oklahoma’s measure have primarily stressed the medicinal qualities of marijuana and the expanded personal freedom that comes with ending prohibition. Others point to the potential tax revenue that legalization would bring. Now that several states have embraced medical marijuana, the revenue effects have come into clearer focus. The experience in other states suggest that legalizing marijuana for medical purposes only would have negligible revenue effects, but the legalization of recreational marijuana could bring significant benefits — though it would not by itself solve Oklahoma’s persistent revenue shortfalls.

Ryan Gentzler is a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute, for the rest of this article and more, visit okpolicy.org.