After year of Washington legal pot sales, taxes top $70M

Washington, for its part, first legalized marijuana purchases for adults over 21 years old in 2012.

The $70 million total in taxes for the state’s first year of sales includes all state and local sales and other taxes, AP reported.

Washington state launched its legal marijuana market around this time in 2014, and in this past year, weed sales reached $250 million with about $62 million of it constituting excise taxes.

©2015 by The Associated Press. Thats beyond the states original forecast of $36 million. And when state and neighborhood sales and other taxes are included, the total payday for the state and local governments tops $70 million. Colorado’s recreational sales began January 1, 2014, and brought in taxes of $44 million in the first year. While it’s only a small fraction of the state’s $38 billion two-year budget, some of the money will go toward health programs, such as those treating substance abuse, as well as universities for marijuana research, dropout prevention programs, and transportation.

“While this amount of money isn’t almost enough to run a whole state with, these are real dollars that can now be spent on things like schools, healthcare and road fix instead of going straight into the pockets of the drug dealers who controlled the marijuana market prior to legalization”, Angell added.

The state is now tweaking its regulatory and tax burdens for the controversial crop. The law makes clear that the 37 percent tax is the responsibility of the customer – not the retailer.

Although only Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. have fully legalized marijuana, many more states have made it medically legal or have decriminalized possession.

Business might be good, but all those taxes – on top of federal ones – hurt growers. Thats been especially tough on retailers, who must pay federal income tax on the marijuana tax they turn over to the state.

But a new tax rate, recently signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, should help retailers out.

The state has approved more than 6 million square feet of plant canopy to produce marijuana to date, according to data HuffPost received from Brian Smith, the communications director for the state Liquor Control Board.

It has already implemented background checks and financial inquiries into potential pot-license applicants. Products that appeal to kids also remain banned – no marijuana cotton candy or gummy bears. Not only does this drive up marijuana costs for everyone, it also means nobody’s making money.