Study: Tokyo Has Most Expensive Marijuana in the World, Quito (Ecuador) Has Cheapest

For the study, Seedo (an automatic cultivator device) began first by selecting 120 cities across the world, including locations where cannabis is currently legal, illegal and partially legal, and where marijuana consumption data is available. Then, they looked into the price of cannabis per gram in each city. To calculate how much potential tax a city could make through legalization, researchers investigated how much tax is paid on the most popular brand of cigarettes, “as this offers the closest comparison”. They then looked at what percentage marijuana is currently taxed in cities where it’s already legalized in the US.

“This study has revealed some incredible insights into the kind of tax revenue that legalising weed could generate.” says Uri Zeevi, CMO at Seedo. “Take New York City for instance, which has the highest consumption level in the study at 77.44 metric tons of cannabis per year. If they taxed marijuana at the average US cannabis tax level, the city could make $156.4 million in potential tax revenue per year. This is equivalent to providing nearly 3 months worth of free school meals to every single public school kid in New York City.”

The table below reveals a sample of the results for the 13 US cities featured in the study:

#	City	Legality	Price per gram, US$	Total possible tax collection, if taxed at cigarette level, mil US$	Total possible tax collection, if taxed at average US marijuana taxes, mil US$	Total consumption in metric tons
1	Washington, DC	Partial	18.08	47.51	20.96	6.18
2	Chicago	Partial	11.46	119.61	52.77	24.54
3	Philadelphia	Partial	11.30	68.37	30.16	14.22
4	Boston	Legal	11.01	28.59	12.61	6.10
5	New York	Partial	10.76	354.48	156.40	77.44
6	Dallas	Partial	10.03	51.01	22.5	11.95
7	Houston	Partial	10.03	89.13	39.32	20.89
8	Phoenix	Partial	9.35	58.26	25.71	14.65
9	Miami	Partial	9.27	16.24	7.16	4.12
10	San Francisco	Legal	9.27	30.94	13.65	7.85
11	Los Angeles	Legal	8.14	124.88	55.10	36.06
12	Denver	Legal	7.79	20.53	9.06	6.20
13	Seattle	Legal	7.58	20.59	9.08	6.39

The table below shows the top 10 most and least expensive cities for cannabis: