The supply-side effects of cannabis legalization

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine how cannabis legalization and corresponding taxation would affect the supply-side of the cannabis market. Specifically, the study considers various scenarios in which Oklahoma legalizes recreational cannabis for adult use and simulates changes in state-level market sales for other legal states and the average grower profits in Oklahoma. We assume that legalizing recreational cannabis in medical-only states would significantly increase the demand quantity in the legalized states and the local government would levy a significant level of tax on recreational cannabis. These assumptions are based on the post-legalization phenomena in other legalized US states. METHOD: We simulate outcomes in the cannabis industry under the assumption of representative consumers with constant elasticity of substitution demand behavior and profit-maximizing firms with a Cobb-Douglas profit function. All agents are assumed to take exogenous prices as given. We calibrate the model using state-level sales data from 2020 and explore potential policies in Oklahoma and at the federal level. RESULTS: We find that, under the scenarios we consider, legalization of recreational cannabis in Oklahoma would lead to a decrease in the quantity of cannabis sold in Oklahoma’s medical cannabis market as well as decreases in the quantity of cannabis sold in other states on average. Furthermore, we find that as the excise tax rate on recreational cannabis in Oklahoma is increased, the demand quantity in recreational cannabis market would decrease while the other markets’ demand quantity would increase on average. As the elasticity of substitution between state-level products increases, the overall demand quantity would increase and the market quantity across states become more sensitive to Oklahoma’s tax policies. This pattern could become starker as the elasticity of substitution between recreational and medical cannabis increases. In terms of profit, heavy taxation and price decrease due to legalization would significantly decrease cannabis producers’ production and profit levels unless the cost reduction strategies complement legalization. CONCLUSION: Based on our results, the legalization of recreational cannabis has the potential to generate tax revenue to fund critical government projects and services. However, such legalization would have to be done carefully because heavy excise taxes would decrease the legal cannabis market demand and growers’ profit, which would incentivize producers and consumers to move to the illicit cannabis market. Policymakers would have to compromise between the levels of interstate transportation and taxation to ensure that cannabis suppliers also realize some profit within the cannabis supply chain.