Oregon’s first week of legal pot sales takes in $11 million

The state originally estimated that legal cannabis sales would net $9 million in tax revenue throughout the first full year of 2017, but the Oregon Retail Cannabis Association now believes it’ll bring in almost three to four times as much.

Ryan Fox, the founder and CEO of The Grass Station, one of the oldest and largest recreational dispensaries in Colorado, says the latest figures on the state’s sales of legalized marijuana acknowledge that the recreational cannabis business is growing rapidly and maturing into a legitimate industry.

The OLCC predicts that Oregon will bring in $10.7 million in tax revenue by 2017.

Excited shoppers looking to score a few of the first recreational marijuana sold legally in Oregon bought up baggies of bud early Thursday, taking advantage of door-buster prices and other deals. As marijuana is not now considered a crop, but a schedule 1 drug, the regulation falls to state governments.

Below is a look at where New England states fall in the rankings, as well as where marijuana is the most expensive and least expensive nationally.

Bulk of the tax payers’ money goes into funding helicopters that scout marijuana farms from the sky and the cops on foot who try to uproot the plants. The state does not yet require growers to be licensed and is not testing the product for pesticides. Additionally, there are a few places where legalized marijuana won’t be sold in Oregon, as the state has allowed individual cities and counties to prohibit the sale. No special card, like the card for members of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, is needed for recreational purchases.

Oregon’s first week of selling legalized marijuana has been, by pretty much all accounts, a success.

Additionally, the licensing process is considerably more lax in Oregon than in other states (with regard to recreational or medical marijuana licenses).

Marijuana use in the small New England state is pervasive.

The possession of marijuana for personal use became officially legal in Oregon as of July 1.