With This Kinda Money, Here Comes Legalization

[GrassMonkey]

Pot buyers add more than $1M to Colorado tax coffers

 

DENVER — In the first month of legal recreational marijuana sales in Colorado, retailers who shared their proprietary data with NBC News say they have collected $1.24 million in tax revenue.

 

Half of the state’s 35 licensed recreational retailers participated in the NBC News survey. The 18 retailers shared the first 27 days of their tax data because they say they believe it will help their image.

 

 

In the first month of operation, sellers of recreational marijuana are doing brisk business in Colorado. One seller said she averages about $20,000 a day in sales.

 

In several cases, some of those sharing data had only sold recreational pot for four days due to complications with obtaining their state and local licenses.

 

In a back-of-the-napkin calculation, those who shared the data say they figure February’s tax collections in Colorado likely will exceed a quarter of a million dollars a day, putting it on pace to near $100 million annually.

 

When Colorado first considered legalizing recreational marijuana, it was estimated the first year’s tax take would be $67 million.

 

By comparison, Colorado took in about $39.9 million in sales, use and excise taxes from alcoholic beverages in fiscal 2013, according to the state Department of Revenue. Cigarettes generated $165.5 million in taxes, and tobacco products $31.6 million in the same fiscal year, July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013.

 

Toni Fox, owner of 3D Cannabis in Denver, says she could double her average daily sales of $20,000, but there isn't enough marijuana available.

 

“Elected officials around the country are watching what’s happening in Colorado and they're recognizing that there's a better way to handle marijuana,” said Mason Tvert, director of communications for Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for legally regulated marijuana. “And by regulating its sale and having taxes paid on it, it’s a much more sensible approach.”

 

Tvert believes the so-called “Colorado experiment” will be even more impressive in the coming months because, “obviously this is just the first month of sales and only a fraction of the businesses that are expected to be open are currently operating.”

 

Taxes paid for pot transactions in Colorado vary depending on the municipality where it’s sold.

 

All sales are assessed the standard state sales tax of 2.9 percent, plus there’s a special state sales and excise tax, and there’s also an extra local sales and excise tax in many cities.

 

In Denver, those taxes add up to nearly 29 percent.

 

But that’s not stopping customers.

 

At 3D Cannabis recently, Toni Fox had to close because she had run out of product. Despite a big “closed” sandwich board on the steps to her storefront, there was a steady stream of would-be customers knocking on the door.

 

Fox says when she’s open, she’s averaging about $20,000 a day in sales.

 

Eva Honingford-Woolheiser, co-owner of Northern Lights Cannabis in Edgewater, Colo., says the tax revenue from marijuana will mean "really nice schools, really nice roads and really nice bridges."

 

In Colorado, voters approved recreational marijuana sales with the promise that the first $40 million in tax revenue would go toward building schools.

 

After hearing about the early tax revenue figures gathered by NBC News, one shop owner in Edgewater sounded impressed.

 

“Wow, we’re going to have really nice schools, really nice roads and really nice bridges,” said Eva Honingford-Woolheiser, co-owner of Northern Lights Cannabis just outside Denver.

 

It’s those municipal projects made possible with marijuana tax money that has legislators in various states watching closely.

 

In Rhode Island, where there is a $100 million state budget deficit, state Sen. Joshua Miller has proposed legislation to change marijuana laws similar to what Colorado voters did.

 

 

“The kind of money that could be generated through this is an amount that could take care of more than 20 percent of the deficit that we’re running every year,” he said. “So it’s a very important revenue source potentially.”

 

Miller believes legal pot sales could generate $20 million or more a year. And he says it would also cut back on the government costs of running jails and prisons because legal sales would reduce arrests and incarcerations.

 

Critics of the legalization movement say the tax revenues appear seductive until the costs of pot addiction are calculated.

 

http://m.nbcnews.com/business/pot-buyers-add-more-1m-colorado-tax-coffers-2D12035047

[t-pain]

yeah! WHAT ABOUT THE POT ADDICTION?!

[mibrains]

i am addicted to money...

 

oh no..   

 

what ever shall they do with me?

 

i think i may need therapy to cure my desires...

[trichcycler]

I'm addicted to growing, I hope the corpohypocracy doesn't end that joy.

[Restorium2]

I'm addicted to growing, I hope the corpohypocracy doesn't end that joy.

They did already. It costs $75,000 for a grow license. You would have to ramp your fun grow up to the point of hiring a crew to offset that kind of money. Then it wouldn't be fun anymore. Legalization, in this form, is squeezing everything good out of cannabis and stuffing what's left in a tiny baggy with a huge price tag.

[trichcycler]

could never happen in our state,......   right

 

CO residents do not need to spend 75k to grow their own, they are free to grow plants for themselves. People wishing to sell marijuana

will need to anty up for a permit.

I don't need to grow for patients. I'm actually considering

growing for myself only anyways, here in MI, or maybe someday elsewhere, like Colorado.

Edited February 4, 2014 by grassmatch

[Restorium2]

could never happen in our state,......   right

It WILL happen in our state.

 

Tell you what match. I'll put up the elite strains and the $75K and you do all the work. When I sell over $75k worth I'll split the profit with you. What say you?

[Restorium2]

Don't forget about the part where you pay the state inspectors to look at what you are doing. I think you have to pay their travel expenses and buy their lunch too.

[trichcycler]

Colorado is more mmj friendly than Amsterdam !

Amsterdam has long been known as the most weed-friendly place in the world, but with the passage of Colorado's new law legalizing the sale of marijuana to adults 21 and over, Amsterdam will have to take a back seat to Colorado's capital city.

Here are five ways Denver is more weed-friendly than Amsterdam.

1. You can buy way more weed legally in Denver than you can in Amsterdam.

Colorado's Amendment 64 allows state residents to buy 1 ounce of weed at a time from the state's dispensaries, most of which are located in the Denver area. (Out-of-state residents are limited to a quarter ounce at a time.) In Amsterdam, you can't buy more than 5 grams at a time from the city's "coffee shops."

2. You can legally grow weed in Denver. In Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands, that's against the law.

In Denver, as in the rest of the state, you can grow up to six plants per adult in the privacy of your own home, as long as they're grown in an "enclosed, locked space" and no more than three of the plants are flowering at a time. Cultivation of marijuana throughout the Netherlands is against the law, although there's a policy of tolerance for people growing a small amount of weed in their own homes.

3. Denver city law lets you blaze on your front porch or in your backyard. In Amsterdam, that's a no-no.

Despite early efforts to outlaw smoking weed in open view in Denver, the Denver City Council voted in December to let residents blaze on private property even while in public view, like on front porches, balconies, etc. Smoking at someone else's house without their permission is illegal, however.

In the Netherlands, contrary to popular belief, smoking pot is technically illegal, although it's tolerated in certain places under certain conditions. That means that if you're sitting on a blanket smoking in your backyard on a sunny day, you're technically breaking the law.

4. You can legally buy weed brownies, magic cookies and cannabis lollipops in Denver. In Amsterdam, that's illegal.

The Colorado Department of Revenue's awesomely named Marijuana Enforcement Division says that you can buy up to 1-ounce worth of weed edibles in Colorado if you're a state resident. (Out-of-staters are limited to a quarter-ounce's worth of stoner treats, which is still no small portion.) Anyone up for some marijuana-infused baklava?

Amsterdam, on the other hand, does have weed edibles for sale in some coffee shops. But again, such products are illegal, strictly speaking, under Netherlands law.

5. You can gift your friends up to 1 ounce of weed in Denver, but not in Amsterdam.

Christmas just got a lot more fun in Colorado. State law explicitly states that it's completely legal to give another adult up to 1 ounce of marijuanas long as no money is exchanged. In Amsterdam, although it's rare that you would be prosecuted for it, giving any weed to a friend is against the law.

 

huffington post

[Restorium2]

could never happen in our state,......   right

 

CO residents do not need to spend 75k to grow their own, they are free to grow plants for themselves. People wishing to sell marijuana

will need to anty up for a permit.

I don't need to grow for patients. I'm actually considering

growing for myself only anyways, here in MI, or maybe someday elsewhere, like Colorado.

Ahh, you went and edited instead of writing a new post.

 

In Denver you can have 6 plants A HOUSE. Have fun with that.

[trichcycler]

I've graduated the labor force some time ago, and would hate to support a movement I'm not sure about yet. when wall street gets ahold of companies selling 40k a day in herb, the game changes

It WILL happen in our state.

Tell you what match. I'll put up the elite strains and the $75K and you do all the work. When I sell over $75k worth I'll split the profit with you. What say you?

[trichcycler]

you'd trust me with your 75k investment ?

It WILL happen in our state.

Tell you what match. I'll put up the elite strains and the $75K and you do all the work. When I sell over $75k worth I'll split the profit with you. What say you?

[Restorium2]

you'd trust me with your 75k investment ?

Yup. Regulations make it so you are on camera 24-7 while in the grow. I would have the 'grassmatch channel' on my phone.

[+washtenaut]

Oh!  Wait!  He needs to discuss that matter of the electronic ankle bracelet too

[trichcycler]

you could have that right now, for a small monthly fee........tehe. I love cams

[trichcycler]

Tether Leather Bling covers that  shiiit up so nobody sees it !  hehe

 

disclaimer

 

(I've no arrests, no convictions, no jail, ever, yet, for the record)

Oh!  Wait!  He needs to discuss that matter of the electronic ankle bracelet too