Not sure if this is what the other poster was going for but increases in spending in one area often comes at the expense of another area. That can come in the form of the illegal drug industry losing revenue to the legal drug industry and the government getting a share, but it also can come in the form of other spending that would have taken place now not taking place as users of legalized drugs are spending their money on those products instead of spending on going out to eat as often, buying fewer video games, purchasing less alcohol, going on fewer trips, etc. Tax revenue from that spending that has been displaced into the legal drug industry should be subtracted out of the $15 billion if the point here is that legalization increased government revenue. Of course, that's going to be very difficult to calculate since those displacement activities are on the individual level.
It can do. If weed was made legal here I would jump on it immediately; the only reason I don't currently is because it's too much of a hassle to find someone who sells it and I can trust. When I was in California with a friend they ordered some on an app and a guy pulled up in their parking lot twenty minutes later. That's legalisation bringing barriers to entry way down, which is a surefire way to increase popularity.
Not necessarily. Cannabis was extremely easy to find and there are reasons that something being banned would make it more exciting and popular. It's also gotten more expensive in many of the legal states.
Might be taxed at a really high rate, or production might be low. Took Colorado a long time for the prices to really go down, and it still varies a ton from city to city.
