For the Culture By The Culture. ISSN: 3064-9331.
Pot Culture Magazine’s Cannabis Lies series takes on the Tax Revenue Lie: cannabis tax revenue is real, but states use the number to make legalization look finished. From Illinois repair programs and California budget shifts to Colorado school funding and Michigan roads, it shows why public revenue is not drug-war repayment.
Cannabis legalization was sold as the end of the illicit market. Instead, stacked taxes, licensing limits, and local bans created price gaps that allowed underground sales to survive. From California’s cultivation tax to Illinois pricing and Michigan’s price compression, this installment of Cannabis Lie examines how policy design, not the plant, determines who wins and who stays in the shadows.