The state of Alaska has received its batch of cannabis tax revenue from the first full month of retail marijuana sales.
In November, seven marijuana cultivators paid $81,100 to the Alaska Department of Revenue's Tax Division, division director Ken Alper wrote in an email.
About 98 pounds of marijuana bud and 10 pounds of trim — the leaves and stems — were sold wholesale, Alper wrote. Under Alaska law, cultivators pay the state's tax. Bud is taxed at $50 per ounce, and other parts of the plant, like the stems and leaves, are taxed at $15 per ounce.
Most of the taxes were paid in cash, and a few were paid with check, Alper wrote.
$81,100 may seem like a fairly paltry sum at this point, but remember that is ONLY with five stores operating in the entire state, and not all of them were open the entire month of November.
There are now three more stores open, with one of them in Anchorage, so I would be willing to bet that the next time the state collects taxes it will be substantially larger. (Colorado brought in 70 million in one year alone.)
I of course don't think that marijuana will ever bring in the tax revenues provided by the oil companies, but at least it is a steady source of tax income that does not require ripping the shit out of the wilderness.
So there's that.
Source http://ift.tt/2j7t9HD
