Cashing in on the green rush

Analysis

BBC

Government, Politics, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some countries have legalised cannabis, often with the hope of kick-starting a lucrative new source of tax revenue - but just how profitable has it been?

Aside from a few fact-finding trips, the prospect of legalising cannabis is not on the political agenda here in the UK - but could it be missing out?

Advocates say it's a bad call to let criminals continue to profit when legal businesses and the government could reap the financial rewards instead. Opponents counter that no amount of money is worth the associated public health risks.

But in the past decade countries including Canada, Malta, Uruguay and parts of the United States have decided to embrace the so-called green rush.

But how is it working out for them economically and what lessons could other places considering legalisation learn?

Reporter Datshiane Navanayagam talks to:

Christopher Snowden, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs

Adam Spiker, executive director of a cannabis trade association in California

Amanda Chicago Lewis, a US based investigative reporter covering cannabis

Laura Schultz, executive director of research at Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York

Rishi Malkani, Cannabis Leader at Deloitte

Charlotte Bowyer, Head of Advisory at Hanway Associates

Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production co-ordinators: Helena Warwick-Cross and Maria Ogundele Sound engineer: James Beard

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected,
0:33.1	find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.1	BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. podcasts.
0:45.0	Cannabis, marijuana, pot, grass, dope, hash, weed,
0:48.0	grass, dope, hash, weed, ganger,
0:52.0	so many names for this ubiquitous little green herb that's managed to find
0:56.7	its way to all corners of the world. Despite its illegal status here in the UK, it does sometimes feel like it's everywhere,
1:07.0	or at least the smell of it, wafting through open windows or across parks,
1:11.0	and yet the decriminalization of cannabis isn't particularly high on
1:16.1	the political agenda here. Certainly it's a complex issue especially when it comes to
1:21.6	questions around crime as well as the positives and negatives on how it affects our personal health and well-being.
1:28.5	But at a time when the policing of weed seems indifferent or patchy at least towards individual users are
1:36.2	we missing an opportunity I'm Daciani Navanaghum I'm a journalist but I also
1:42.2	used to work as a policy advisor in the Treasury.
1:45.0	In this week's analysis I want to park the moral and medical debate and just follow the money
1:51.0	to explore if Cannabis could really be the cash cow some
	...

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