Taxes

Cannabis-derived revenues continue to climb in Nevada, where officials have raked in more than $100 million from cannabis taxes and fees over the last fiscal year.

Cannabis tax revenues are going up in California but are still far below original expectations, likely thanks to high tax rates and an excess of local bans on the industry.

In the almost year since legal adult-use sales launched in Canada, cannabis industry employment has nearly quadrupled from 2,630 positions filled to 9,200.

A new Pew report warns states against trusting their cannabis tax revenue estimates during the market’s early years.

Canada’s legal cannabis marketplace earned $186 million in general and excise taxes during its first five and a half months.

Since its establishment in 2014, Colorado’s legal cannabis industry has generated just over $1 billion in tax revenue for the state. More than $6.5 billion worth of cannabis has been sold.

Lawmakers in California have rejected legislation to reduce the state’s cannabis tax but also advanced a bill that would require municipalities to allow industry operations.

California’s high cannabis tax rates — which in some communities can reach as high as 50 percent — appear to have drastically stunted the marketplace’s growth, so much so that state officials have scaled back their estimated cannabis tax revenues through June 2020 by $223 million.

A bill to legalize and regulate adult-use cannabis has passed the Connecticut Finance Committee and is expected to advance next to the full House floor for consideration.

Connecticut lawmakers are hoping for a 20 percent overall tax on adult-use cannabis products with an optional 3 percent tax for local municipalities; the tax plan would keep Connecticut’s cannabis tax on par with neighboring Massachusetts.

A bi-partisan Massachusetts proposal would subject unlicensed cannabis sellers to a “foregone tax revenue assessment,” which would bill illegal operators based on the “estimated forgone tax revenue” resulted from their unregulated sales.

A recent budget amendment in Washington state aims to give police departments cannabis tax dollars to help combat drug addiction in homeless communities.

The proposal could result in reduced tax rates for low-THC and/or hemp-derived products.

A bill allowing state-licensed medical cannabis companies to access banking services in West Virginia has passed both the state House and Senate and now awaits the governor’s signature.

California’s tax revenue numbers have been released from the first full year of legalization, and are far lower than originally predicted.

A new bill hopes to restructure the California tax code to allow medical cannabis that meets certain requirements to be donated to patients tax-free.

Lawmakers have introduced Assembly Bill 286 in an effort to reduce taxes and decrease the cost of legal cannabis products.

Ultra Health, the largest cannabis producer in New Mexico, is suing the state to recover sales taxes that it claims are against New Mexico medical laws.

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Some analysts speculate that a majority of cannabis purchases in California still occur in the illicit market.

The cannabis industry lobbying organization is bringing more lobbyists onboard to pressure for passage of the STATES Act this session.

Five years after the birth of Colorado’s legal cannabis marketplace, the first statewide legalization “experiment” is a proven success and the dire warnings from prohibitionists have still failed to come to fruition.