NORML Board Member and California NORML Director Dale Gieringer said that the legal cannabis market in California is already “burdened by excessive taxes and regulation. … California needs to be reducing, not increasing cannabis taxes to make the legal market more competitive.”
Voters yesterday decided on a number of state and local ballot initiatives specific to marijuana policies.
Colorado NORML is urging voters to decide against Initiative #25, opining that excessive taxation on regulated marijuana products will drive consumers back to the illicit market. “This Ballot Initiative is an unnecessary tax burden,” Colorado NORML states in an action alert.
With marijuana sales in Colorado topping $1 billion, local and state officials are making the most of marijuana tax dollars by reinvesting in public education and funding local projects.
A fiscal report issued by the state’s Auditor General estimates that taxing Pennsylvania’s existing retail cannabis market would yield $581 million in new annual revenue. “It is time for Pennsylvania to stop imagining the benefits of marijuana and realize them,” it concludes.
Revenues from Colorado’s legal cannabis industry have surpassed over a half-billion dollars since retail sales began on January 1, 2014.
State taxes specific to the production and retail sale of marijuana totaled some $70 million in Colorado over the past year — nearly twice the amount collected for alcohol during this same period.
Legalizing the retail production and sale of cannabis in the United States would yield over $3 billion in annual tax revenue, according to an analysis published this week by the personal finance website, NerdWallet.com. Based on existing market projections, California would gain the largest amount of annual tax revenue ($519,287,052) were commercial cannabis production and sales to be legalized for adults. Other top tax revenue generating states include: New York ($248,103,676), Florida ($183,408,640), Texas ($166,303,963), and Illinois ($126,107,360).