According to a report by Volte Face, a pro-drug legalization think tank, a regulated digital-only cannabis market in the United Kingdom could raise £800 million (more than USD $102 million) for federal coffers. The report, called The Green Screen, claims that an online-only marketplace would allow for detailed tracking of cannabis sales and provide safeguards to ensure individuals under 21 aren’t able to obtain cannabis via state-controlled online markets.
“We believe that Britain’s multi billion-pound cannabis market should be developed and operated exclusively online by a private sector that is stringently controlled and regulated by democratically elected governments,” the report says, according to a Sky News report.
Mike Power, the author of the report, said that the digital model would prohibit any underage person from making purchases because age and identification would need to be provided before any sales were completed, and that every purchase could be monitored “to make sure that money was going directly in the taxpayers’ pocket.”
“The current situation, any young person with five or ten pounds can come to Camden and buy a bag of cannabis,” Power said in the report. “They can’t go to a supermarket and buy alcohol without having their identity checked and verified.”
Elizabeth Burton-Philips, founder of legalization opposition group DrugFAM, said a legal cannabis market “is just opening up an opportunity for national disaster.”
“It’s absolutely the most irresponsible thing to do,” she said.
Volte Face has been working with Canadian officials on their legalization plans.