Abstract
In this paper we evaluate the dimension of the illegal market for cannabis in Italy and the potential fiscal revenues in case of liberalization. With respect to previous studies, we consider the price elasticity of demand and the competition of the organized crime. We conclude that the fiscal revenues might be much lower than expected if one applies to cannabis the same taxation of tobacco. We analyze also the social and health costs of a liberalization whose final effect might be the one of expanding the number of consumers and the frequency of consumption. Drugs’ liberalization poses, in fact, a trilemma with respect to its three objectives: consumers’ protection, fiscal revenues, and costs’ savings. One can obtain only two of them, while the remaining one has to be sacrificed.