What does ‘420 Friendly’ mean on a dating profile?

It is 4/20, a day that many marijuana enthusiasts use to celebrate cannabis. Throughout the year, you may see the phrase “420 friendly” on dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. What does this mean? Well, it is a node to 4/20, the holiday that many will take part in today, intended to denote marijuana usage. Those who wish to be a bit more discrete may also use the leaf emoji to indicate the same message.

For those outside of the cannabis community, the scale of the market and the pheromonal might come as a surprise. A Gallup poll conducted last year found that seventeen percent of adults in the United States use marijuana. As states have opted for legalization, this average has increased steadily since 2013, when Gallup first started collecting this data. Additionally, 2023 was the first year half of respondents reported that they had tried the drug at some point. The percentage for younger adults between 18 and 34 is the highest among age groups: 26 percent versus 18 percent for those 35 to 54 and 11 percent for those 55 and older. Men (19 percent) also tend to partake more than women (14 percent).

The marijuana market and the revenue it generates

In recent years, almost half of the states in the US have legalized the sale of recreational marijuana. This has led to the need for governments to establish tax systems for the drug. When developing a tax system, governments walk a fine line between a desire to increase public revenue and not seeing duties so high that demand in the black market remains high. States have taken different approaches to imposing taxes on marijuana, with the systems varying based on whether they tax a percentage of the sale price, the weight, the potency, or the standard sales tax. All states combined all of these methods to increase the revenue generated from the commercialization of marijuana.

According to the Urban Institute, in California, those who purchase products containing marijuana pay a fifteen percent tax. Local governments can also impose their own taxes, “which means the tax burden on the customer is possibly well above the listed tax rate.”

Which states see the greatest revenue generated through the commercialization of marijuana?

The total revenue generated depends on factors beyond just the taxation of marijuana, like population size. Therefore, the Urban Institute reported on the 2022 revenue as a total and per capita basis. The first states that saw the most largest sum from these taxes were:

Based on the available data, it is evident that Washington’s high tax rate on marijuana sales results in substantial revenue each year. These sales constitute approximately 1.5 percent of the state’s overall tax revenue. Only Colorado and Nevada generate a higher percentage of their total tax revenue from marijuana sales, with a figure of 1.7 percent.