Colorado braces for day of tax-free weed

Thanks to a quirk in Colorado tax law, no state sales tax will be collected on recreational marijuana today, effectively saving customers 10 percent on all the pot they purchase.

Colorado received more revenue from marijuana taxes than from alcohol taxes between July 2014 and June 2015, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a pot advocacy group. A regular 2.9 percent sales tax still applies, as do medical marijuana taxes and local pot taxes. Under the state Constitution, the accounting error triggered an automatic suspension of any new taxes – in this case, the recreational marijuana taxes voters approved in 2013. The Weather Source reports that will translate to at least $20 off mid-range quality marijuana, which normally retails for $200. Officials save said that it may cost up to $4 million to lose tax revenue for a day.

Patrons can expect at least a 10 percent discount on marijuana from the tax break and at some stores additional deals from sellers hoping to capitalize on the day. “This will be the one day out of the year when the state won’t generate significant revenue”.

“I saw online there was some kind of loophole on the taxes, so I had to come buy some”, said David Illig of Onawa, Iowa, who was passing through on a drive to California.

Caselton said he spends about $150 to $200 every two weeks on pot, so he was looking forward to saving a little money, joking that dispensaries charge “highway robbery” prices on recreational weed.

Economist Daniel Rees pointed out that beer sales growth didn’t keep up with population growth in the last year, estimated at about 1.7 percent between 2014 and 2015. State lawmakers later decided to resurrect the marijuana taxes after a single day.

‘Most people I’ve ever seen here’.

Recreational marijuana users will be able to buy their product without paying sales tax Wednesday.

The effectiveness of the “Just Say No” program of the Reagan era was noted by the researchers to pale in comparison to the effect of legalization of marijuana.

He noted with regard to the fatalities that other state agencies have said one year of data is too little to draw conclusions on, and other drugs and alcohol are often involved in these fatalities.