A preliminary economic impact report from UC Santa Barbara estimates the cannabis industry generates $458M annually for the county economy. The Economic Forecast Project indicates that weed’s financial contributions can reach far beyond filling local tax coffers.
Coastal View
- Growers spend $785,000 per acre on local goods and services, including consulting fees, payroll, and taxes. Yearly, Santa Barbara’s 156 acres of legal grows incur $122M million in expenses.
- Annually, the average grow employs 16 people, each with an average salary of $65,000. The average payroll cost per acre is nearly $1M.
- Twenty-five hundred cannabis jobs in Santa Barbara County bring $161M in employee income. Also, the industry “directly supports an additional 2,400 jobs through spending in the local economy and 1,100 indirectly.” The contributions come in the form of supplier and employer activities.
- Growers, according to the UC report, cover 51% of their expenses locally.
Quick Hit
- Qualifying patients in Berkeley can get MED for free. And marijuana card fees can be waived or even cancelled if one’s income is low enough. These are just some of ways that the poor can more easily access weed.
WeedMaps
