Chafee Factors Marijuana Sales Into Budget Plan

[bobandtorey]

 

 

 

 

PROVIDENCE — The long-awaited debut of medical marijuana dispensaries in Rhode Island this spring promises to help deal with the state’s projected $295-million budget deficit.

 

Last week, Governor Chafee proposed $157 million in new taxes on a wide array of items, including a 6-percent sales tax on medical marijuana sold at dispensaries.

 

But just how much revenue could sales in the state’s growing medical-marijuana program deliver to the state’s coffers?

 

State Tax Administrator David Sullivan said that his office projects $802,000 in marijuana sales taxes for fiscal year 2012, which begins July 1. He said that the state expects the figure to climb to $1.3 million in the following fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2013.

 

Meanwhile, the state would also place a 4-percent surcharge on gross monthly dispensary sales, under the budget proposal. Assuming that the Health Department issues permits for three dispensaries, the state predicts that the surcharge would produce $1.4 million during the dispensaries’ first two years of business.

 

All told, that’s $3.5 million in new tax revenue over two years. The Health Department is expected to announce on Tuesday the names of operators for up to three dispensaries. They will be chosen from a list of 18 applications.

 

JoAnne Leppanen, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, forecast that once the dispensaries open, 75 to 100 patients a week will apply to the Health Department for licenses to use medical marijuana, compared to about 30 now. There are now 3,271 Rhode Islanders licensed to use and grow medical marijuana, and 2,077 licensed to grow it for approved users.

 

Dispensary owners in Colorado expect that the opening of three dispensaries in Rhode Island would lead to a dramatic surge in medical marijuana patients. They say that the centers are safe, and they erase many of the stigmas associated with using marijuana. Juan Diaz, manager at Cannabis Medical Technology in Denver, predicted that Rhode Island will quickly see the number of patients double or triple. If his projections hold up, that would mean there will be just under 10,000 patients with medical marijuana cards.

 

State Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, was instrumental in drafting the legislation that created the state’s marijuana program in 2006. She worked closely with the late Rep. Thomas C. Slater, D-Providence.

 

“We really had no idea what the numbers would become for people eligible for the program,” Perry said.

 

She said that they “just looked at the size of the state,” and decided three dispensaries were enough.

 

Perry said that legislation could be drafted to expand beyond three dispensaries if there is strong, fact-based data signaling that more centers are needed.

 

Perry said that Rhode Island doesn’t need a loosely regulated system like Colorado, where there are more dispensaries than coffee shops.

 

“We don’t need that,” she said. “I don’t want to put in jeopardy what has been successful in this state. I want to make it better.”

 

The future of the state’s caregiver system is unclear. Last month, two bills were introduced in the General Assembly that would require all medicinal marijuana to be grown and sold through dispensaries — a move that would for all intents and purposes end the caregiver program.

 

Over the past two years, the state police, Providence police and other police departments across the state have made multiple arrests of licensed caregivers who were growing far more marijuana than allowed. In several cases, those arrested had guns and were dealing in steroids and drugs such as cocaine.

 

Law enforcement officials have expressed frustration with the caregiver program, but privacy laws forbid the Health Department from releasing the names of licensed patients and caregivers. The police want to know who is allowed to grow the marijuana and whether they are adhering to state law or using the program as a ruse to illegally grow cannabis and sell it on the street.

 

Leppanen, of RIPAC, has vowed that her organization and other advocacy groups will fight the legislation to end the caregiver system. She has said that many of the patients are indigent, or live on fixed incomes, and they grow their own marijuana or get inexpensive or free marijuana from sympathetic growers. Without the caregivers, all patients would be subjected to the pricing of marijuana at the dispensaries, expected to be about $**** an ounce

 

http://www.projo.com/news/content/RI_MARIJUANA_TAXES_03-13-11_PPMTMNG_v21.15d2a5b.html

 

 

 

sorry i did not want to post the price LOL