High Marijuana Taxes coming your way!
There is an Aesop Fable that states: Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true. The idea is that while we, as dumb-dumb humans, often get down on bended knee and pray to the Gods of the Universe for success, happiness and all sorts of other crud that we are convinced, for whatever reason, will make us whole, we are often sorely disappointed with the outcome when we are given a smidgen of the things for which we crave.
You know how the story goes.
It's the woman who wants nothing more than a fairy tale wedding to a handsome prince charming, only she ends up with a lousy, cheating, alcoholic husband with a raging gambling problem. It's the guy who's spent decades dreaming of becoming the next great American author, yet the extent of his achievement, at least so far, is that he gets to wake up every morning and write columns on marijuana legalization. The point is that life has a sick and twisted sense of humor, and whatever gnarly beast is at the wheel of this whirling planet is never going to allow us to be perfectly content with any good that comes our way. Interestingly enough, cannabis advocates all across the United States are finding this out the hard way when it comes to legal weed and taxes.
One of the most popular arguments that the cannabis advocacy community has when the time comes to fight for legal weed is tax revenue. "Just think about how much money the state could make by taxing marijuana," said every cannabis advocate to speak on the issue over the past several decades. In fact, they have preached this ethos for so long that lawmakers have finally taken notice and decided, you know what, you guys are right, we're going to legalize this stuff and tax the ever-living snot out of it. The political suits are finally convinced that legal weed is a good way to generate beaucoup bucks for their respective state, pay off budget deficits, help drug addicts out of the gutter, construct new schools and repair roads. It's a great idea, too, only now cannabis supporters are no longer satisfied with the novel concept they have been selling like a coked-out car salesman all of these years. High pot taxes have a lot of these cats peeved, which has them threatening to return to the black market. But this is what they have been asking for.
In Illinois, where recreational pot sales just got underway at the first of the year, cannabis patrons are a little miffed over how much it costs to catch a buzz. And, honestly, it's a legitimate gripe. The tax scheme is a bit nutty. Not only does Illinois tax its growers to the tune of 7 percent, but it is also sucking out multiple excise taxes depending on the type of pot product a person buys. They want 10 percent for flower, 20 percent for edibles and beverages, and 25 percent for any product that comes packed with over 35 percent THC. Oh yeah, Illinois pot customers must also contend with state and local taxes. So, in many cases, customers are paying 30 percent extra at the cash register. And, make no mistake about it, they are crying about it too.
"So for all the people out there that are coming out to buy I would encourage you to bring about $40 on top of what you're going to spend," cannabis customer Marc Woolfolk told NBC affiliate KSDK.
Read the Full Story on Forbes - Mike Adams
Tags:
Regulatory