The bulk of local tax revenue from legal marijuana goes toward law enforcement and municipalities’ general funds, with relatively few cities and towns allocating cannabis-generated funds to support education or health programs.
That’s according to a new study from researchers at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, with authors saying the findings represent the “first systematic exploration into how local governments spend or are planning to spend marijuana tax revenue.”
The review looked specifically at three U.S. states with existing adult-use cannabis programs—Michigan, New Mexico and Oregon—as well as Ohio, where marijuana sales began in August but tax revenue has not yet been allocated to local governments. Researchers reached out to 501 localities across the four states, and heard back from about a third of them.
“The survey responses indicate the most frequent utilization of marijuana tax revenue funds involve three areas,” the report found: “depositing revenue into the general fund for use as needed, supporting local law enforcement, and funding parks and recreation in local communities.”
Authors said the results were “especially interesting with respect to smaller jurisdictions,” noting that more than 3 in 4 (76 percent) of respondents represent localities with fewer than 25,000 residents.
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