Financing of environmental protection through income from cannabis legalization
Introduction
In recent years there has been a lot of discussions in politic and media about the legalization of cannabis. In some countries cannabis is already legal. For example in the Netherlands, Jamaica and some parts of the United States. The plant is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from Central Asia.
The plant is also known as hemp, although this term is often used to refer only to varieties of Cannabis cultivated for non-drug use.
In our project we are focusing on the until now illegal drug. We will try to find out what the swiss inhabitants think of cannabis and the cannabis legalization. In a next step we will find out how much income the state can generate by taxing cannabis. For that we will visit a cannabis plantation, to ask all the questions we had. At the and we will present some ideas, how this tax money can be used. We will focus on solutions that benefit our environment.
Street Survey
What do the people think of cannabis and would they legalize it.
What do the people think where this money should be invested in? Is it environmental protection or drug prevention?
Have you ever tried cannabis?
Production of hemp
We wanted to visit the company BioCan. BioCan is Switzerland's largest producer of legal hemp. We wrote an email and asked if we could come for a visit and an Interview.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to visit the company. They offered us to ask all the questions per Mail. And so we did:
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren
Vielen Dank für Ihre rasche Antwort.
Wir möchten uns im Vorab ganz herzlich dafür bedanken, dass Sie uns bei der Bearbeitung unseres Projektes unterstützen.
Zur Plantage:
-Pflanzen Sie Ihre Hanfpflanzen Indoor oder Outdoor an?
-Besteht eine grosse Konkurrenz unter den verschiedenen Anbietern?
-Gibt es oft polizeiliche Kontrollen?
-Gab es bereits Diebstähle oder Einbruchsversuche bei Ihnen?
-Bekommen Sie manchmal negatives Feedback zu ihrer Plantage? Falls ja, in welcher Art?
Zu den Ausgaben:
-Wo liegen die grössten Kosten ihres Betriebes?
-Wie hoch sind sie Ausgaben für die Beschützung der Plantage?
-Wie hoch sind die Kosten für den benötigten Strom?
-Wie hoch sind die Kosten für das benötigte Wasser?
Zu der Besteuerung von CBD:
-Wie hoch sind die staatlichen Abgaben (Steuern usw.)
-Finden Sie diese Besteuerung angemessen?
Zu einer generellen Legalisierung:
-Was halten Sie von einer generellen Cannabislegalisierung?
-Falls Cannabis vollständig legalisiert werden würde, würden Sie weiter bei CBD bleiben oder auch THC-haltiges Cannabis anbauen und vertreiben?
Zu der Betriebswirtschaft:
-Wie viel Umsatz / Gewinn erzielen Sie?
-Beliefern Sie auch Shops im Ausland und falls ja, gibt es öfters Probleme beim Grenzübergang?
Vielen Dank im Voraus für Ihre Antworten. Sollten Sie die finanziellen Fragen lieber nicht beantworten wollen, verstehen wir das selbstverständlich.
Freundliche Grüsse
Oscar de Ruijter, Joel Burlet, David Zenger
Reflection
Unfortunately, they have never answered. And because of that we had a huge fallback. The motivation was on an all-time low and we didn’t know the next step. On top of that we suddenly couldn’t work at school on our project because the school blocked all the websites with cannabis-content.
Mrs. Suter then offered us to visit another hemp plantation in Basel. But unfortunately, we couldn’t find a date and it wasn’t allowed by the math teacher to stay away from school.
Calculation of income
The We found out how much government revenue can be genarated by legalizing cannabis. In Switzerland we consume 60 tonnes of cannabis per year. One gramm costs about 10 francs.
60 t = 60'000'000 g
60'000'000 g x 10 francs = 600 million francs
When cannabis would be legal, the state could charge a tax and invest each year in environmental protection.
20 % of 600 million francs = 120 million
With already 20 percent they would have 120 million per year to invest. Currently, the photovoltaic prices are on averge 1'500 francs per kWp. For one average photovoltic system for a single-family dwelling cost in the purchase of less than 8'000 francs. The state could start by purchesing and installing these sytems on the roofs of the houses owned by the state.
Conclusion:
By legalizing cannabis the state can generate an income to invest in our environment.
Oscar de Ruijter, David Zangger, Joel Burlet
[Sourses, links, e.g. for calculation and data, further links regarding the topic, vocabulary]
[media, pictures from the shop visit, results of the Street survey?, Interview or discussion with economy teachers of wkvw? you could also record a little audio]