VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The current retail value of weed sold in the province is about a half a  billion dollars a year.
   
That is from some pro-pot activists in BC who’ve conducted a study.
   
Researchers at UBC and Simon Fraser University have calculated BC’s current retail value of weed, and they say millions of dollars in revenue could be raised if marijuana was taxed.
    
Economics professor Kevin Milligan says the tax value of pot is a reasonable discussion to have.
    
“A lot of the discussion of whether to legalize or decriminalize or any of these things, tends to focus on people’s concept of what they should be free to do and what they shouldn’t and the impact on crime. But there’s also an extra dividend that might be there, which is a fiscal one.”
   
Milligan says the money would be a benefit for everyone.
   
“Less illegal activity is what you get and you get some revenue you can do something with. It’s a similar kind of dividend of windfall money the government didn’t have before that could benefit BC taxpayers.”

The campaign to legalize marijuana here points to estimates from Washington state, which recently voted to legalize the drug.