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Legal weed might be on its way to New York, but the city is already chock-full of bomb-ass kush.
A recent study from Seedo, which manufactures a plant cultivation device, found that more devil’s lettuce is consumed in New York than in any other city on earth. It estimates that a grand total of 77.44 metric tons of the stuff is consumed within the five boroughs every year (which is about the same weight as the Endeavor space shuttle, another conduit that's taken humans to space, man). According to the study, the world’s next biggest consumer of that loud is Karachi, Pakistan, at 41.95 metric tons per year, followed by New Delhi at 38.26. Los Angeles ranked fourth on the list, with an annual consumption of 36.06 metric tons.
The study doesn’t just aim to demonstrate which cities smoke the most jazz cigarettes—its real goal is to show how much tax revenue cities are missing out on by failing to legalize cannabis. At an estimated cost of $10.76 per gram (crowdsourced from city-level surveys coupled with data from the 2017 World Drug Report), Seedo says that New York City could bring in an additional $156.4 million worth of annual revenue from legalizing and taxing pot at the same rate that it already does cigarettes.
“This is equivalent to providing nearly three months' worth of free school meals to every single public school kid in New York City,” says Uri Zeevi, the company’s chief marketing officer, who seems to have missed an opportunity to point out that the extra tax revenue would be enough to purchase 5.8 million Cheesy Gordita Crunches from Taco Bell.
Marijuana legalization is already expected to be passed in New Jersey this year, and Vermont and New Hampshire are also poised to join the club. In January, Governor Andrew Cuomo called for the state to form a panel to advise him on the prospect of legalizing that sweet, stinky cheebah. With neighboring states queueing up legislation to legalize the green, it seems it’s just a matter of time before New Yorkers can get stoned without worrying about Johnny Law—we're already doing it en masse anyway.
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