Legal Marijuana Revenue, STOP Wildlife Crime “I’m Not Medicine” Billboards at Same Place
A photo was taken in East Lansing, Michigan. One billboard is by Weedmaps speaks of the revenue generated by Legal Marijuana in Colorado; while the other says to STOP Wildlife Crime and “I’m not Medicine” about wildlife such as a Rhinoceros, a billboard by the World Wildlife Fund. Great Message.
Image Credit: Joseph Peeler
What the Numbers Behind Each Billboard Show Today
The two messages photographed side by side in East Lansing have both held up in the years since. The Weedmaps billboard pointed to the tax money that legal cannabis was generating in Colorado, and that figure has only grown. Colorado, where regulated sales began in 2014, has now collected more than $3.22 billion in cumulative marijuana tax and fee revenue through June 2026, according to the state’s Department of Revenue. Annual collections peaked in 2021 and have cooled since, but the broader point the billboard made remains accurate. Nationwide, legal cannabis states have together reported roughly $29 billion in tax revenue since the first adult-use markets opened.
The World Wildlife Fund’s “I’m Not Medicine” message has aged just as well. The campaign’s core claim — that rhino horn has no proven medicinal value — reflects the scientific consensus, since rhino horn is made of keratin, the same protein found in hair and fingernails, and demand driven by traditional-medicine myths continues to fuel poaching. The juxtaposition this post highlighted still lands: one sign celebrating a regulated, taxed, legal market, the other warning against an illegal trade that pushes species toward extinction.
The AEGIS Alliance keeps this record on file as a snapshot of two very different approaches to what societies choose to value and protect. For more on the cannabis side of that ledger, see Northern Michigan University’s Medicinal Plant Chemistry degree, the U.S. cannabinoid patent, and our Activism coverage.
