Originally i thought that if the liberals won it would be a squeaker and that his promise months ago to legalize pot for recreational use like Colorado, Oregon and Washington State have would be the deciding factor by bringing out a huge, mostly non-voting group of pot smokers young and old alike. Looks like i was wrong on that one, Trudeau and the Liberals have barely mentioned this on the campaign trail their than to always affirm their position. The Greens also support outright legalization but their support is small and getting smaller as it usually does in the final days before the vote.
The fact is solid majority of Canadians want pot legalized but Trudeau to his credit hasn't played the 'Legalize Card' probably because he hasn't had to. CTV News though has been digging into the issue and has learned that Liberal candidate and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair is leading a Liberal team that will research best practices involving the possible legalization of marijuana in Canada. "We've got good frameworks already in place," Blair told CTV News on Saturday. "We've already had a great deal of experience with controlling the sale and use of alcohol. We believe that we can build upon that model and we can ensure our communities could be made safer through regulation and legalization."
Another model the Liberals are undoubtedly looking at is the Colorado model. Colorado has received approximately $80 million in direct tax revenue from marijuana sales, and approximately $40 million is dedicated by their legalization law to go towards school construction.
The Liberals have not included marijuana sales in their costed platform so it's uncertain if a potential tax revenue would eventually help balance their bottom line. But if Colorado's initial success with marijuana legalization is an indication, the Canadian economy could see a significant injection of green from the regulation of marijuana far in excess of just the direct taxation revenue.
Since last year, the overall revenue state wide Colorado became the first U.S. state to legalize recreational pot-use. Since then, cannabis sale has generated $700 million in revenue in one year from all the tourist spinoffs like, tour operations, motels, restaurants, gas stations, pizza delivery etc plus the income taxes of all those new job holders makes the total there for sure, and here potentially, much higher. In addition to the $700 million that pot has generated into Colorado's economy, the state now spends far less on enforcement.
When you consider that Canada has at least 10 tines as many people as Colorado the potential revenues here to both the government and the much greater bost to Canada's broader economy promise to be substantial.
