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States have had a wide variety of experiences with recreational marijuana legalization, based in part on whether their retail program built on an existing medical marijuana program, how well expectations about market size lined up with actual demand in the first years of legalization, and how closely the state regulates sales and cultivation. Drawing on our research for the Massachusetts Marijuana Baseline Health Study, we discuss several factors that state and local governments should consider with respect to tax revenue, public health, public safety, and regulatory oversight. We also describe an online tool we developed to help states anticipate the short-term budgetary impact of retail marijuana legalization, including estimated tax revenues and the costs of establishing proper oversight.