A state legislature in California is proposing a new law to tax and regulate the use of marijuana in the state.  According to the LA Times, the value of the marijuana trade in California is estimated at $14 billion.  If the marijuana is taxed like an industry, the state could generate up to $1 billion in revenue. 

Source:  Eric Baliley, “Taxing pot could become political toking point,” LA Times, February 24, 2009. 

Europol seized 500,000 counterfeit euros and arrested nearly 400 people for counterfeiting in 2008.  20 illegal printing centers were also dismantled during the year.

If the 500,000 counterfeit euros were sold on the black market, Europol estimates that it would have generated a profit of 34 million euros.

Source: Europol, “Law Enforcement Agencies seized 500,000 euro counterfeits in 2008,” Press Release, January 12, 2009.

The Indonesia office of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is stating that the country lost $550 million in revenue to software piracy in 2008.  This figure is a 33 percent increase from the estimated $411 million in losses to piracy in 2007. 

The BSA is forecasting that Indonesia will lose up to $600 million in 2009. 

Source: “Piracy costs software industry US$500m,” Jakarta Post, February 25, 2009. 

Source: Canadian Council for Tobacco Control, “Giant Banner on Parliament Hill Urges President Obama to Stop Cigarette Smuggling from the U.S. to Canada,” Press Release, February 19, 2009. 

10 unlicensed and illegal cigarette factories in the United States are responsible for about 90 percent of smuggled cigarettes in Canada, according to the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control. 

Source: Canadian Council for Tobacco Control, “Giant Banner on Parliament Hill Urges President Obama to Stop Cigarette Smuggling from the U.S. to Canada,” Press Release, February 19, 2009. 

The marijuana trade represents between 1.5 and 4.6 percent of the GDP of Canada’s British Columbia province. 

Source: AFP, “Gang violence rattles2010 Olympic city,” Google News, February 22, 2009. 

According to the IFPI, more than half of all movies, music, and software sold in Lebanon are pirated.  The high rate of counterfeiting occurring within the country is preventing Lebanon from joining the World Trade Organization.  

Source: AFP, “Piracy sinking Lebanon cinema, music, cable industry,” Google News, February 20, 2009.

17 Japanese tourists were reported to have spent $87,000 each to receive kidney transplants illegally on the black market in China.

Source:  Mark McDonald, “Report of ‘organ tourism’ stirs new Japan-China controversy,” New York Times, November 7, 2009.

The price of cocaine is continue to drop in Europe as traffickers continue to meet demand.  According to the International Narcotics Board, an UN Agency, the price of cocaine has fallen by 50 percent in the last 10 years. A major factor for the drop in prices is due to the new supply hub located in West Africa.  South American cocaine has an easier route to enter the European Market through this new route.

Read the report, “International Narcotics Control Board: 2008 Report.”

Source: BBC News, “Cocaine price ‘set to fall more’”, February 19, 2009.

In hospitals in Romania, patients are forced to pay bribes of up to 5,000 Euros to receive a brain surgery and up to 100 Euros to get an appendix removed.

In total, the World Health Organization estimates that up to $360 Million a year is paid out in “informal payments” for medical procedures.

Source:  Dan Bilefsky, “In Romania, bribery is a health problem,” New York Times, November 3, 2009.