Top 5 Economic Effects Of Slovenian Cannabis Policy Modernization
Modernizing a nation’s outdated cannabis policies yields numerous benefits, and not just to people directly involved in the cannabis industry. All members of society benefit from the economic impact of policy modernization. Below are five examples of how Slovenia would benefit from modernizing its cannabis policies to permit regulated cannabis commerce incorporating data from already established legal markets.
Job Creation
One of the most significant economic benefits of permitting cannabis commerce is job creation. The emerging legal industry is made up of several sectors, each with its own workforce needs, requiring nearly every job type imaginable to some degree. Additionally, other than outdoor cultivation operations that rely solely on the sun, industry facilities can feasibly be located anywhere in Slovenia for the purposes of research and product development, bringing jobs to areas that may need them more than others.
The emerging legal industry has already created over 428,000 jobs in the United States where regulated commerce is permitted in certain states. Adult-use reform was first implemented in Canada in 2018, and an analysis by Deloitte determined that Canada’s legal industry had created over 150,000 jobs as of the publishing of its February 2022 report.
Boosting Local Economies
The overall economic boost from Canada’s legalized industry is substantial. Deloitte estimates that the legal cannabis industry in Canada contributed over $43.5 billion to the nation’s GDP between the period of October 2018 and February 2022. Cannabis companies directly invested over $4.4 billion into Canada’s economy, with the remaining boost to GDP coming from “indirect” economic contributions, and “induced” contributions.
Public Revenue
According to the United States Census Bureau, between July 2021 and the end of 2022, the governments of legal U.S. states received more than $5.7 billion in public revenue from the emerging industry via taxes and fees. In fiscal 2021-22 in Canada, national and local governments collected more than $1.12 billion.
The public revenue generated by a regulated industry benefits all members of Slovenia’s society, providing policymakers and government officials additional revenue that they can use for such things as schools, social services, and public infrastructure.
Boosting Existing Industries
Slovenia is already established as an international science and tech hub, and the demand for cannabis-based research and product development is already substantial and increasing with every passing year. Slovenia already possesses the knowledge, facilities, and human capital to gain a significant footprint in the cannabis science and technology sectors. However, the window of opportunity to gain a meaningful market share of the sectors will not be open forever, and delays in policy modernization will impact the potential for existing industries.
Savings From Ending Prohibition Enforcement
While it is unknown exactly how much Slovenia spends enforcing cannabis prohibition, it’s likely that it’s a substantial sum. When Slovenia modernizes its policies to permit legal commerce and refrains from enforcing prohibition against consumers and patients, it will instantly save whatever is currently being spent on cannabis enforcement. In Germany, where lawmakers are working to modernize the nation’s cannabis policies, cannabis prohibition costs the nation 1.3 billion euros a year according to an analysis by the Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf.
