Pubdate: Sun, 05 Jul 2015
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2015 Albuquerque Journal
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Gene Johnson, the Associated Press

LEGAL POT SALES EARN WASH. $70M IN TAXES

Two New Laws Aim to Give Some Relief to Farmers, Processors and Retailers

SEATTLE (AP) - Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal 
marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced 
pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 
shops open, tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top 
$1.4 million per day. And, who knows - the industry might even start 
making some money.

Washington pot farmers, processors and retailers have complained all 
year that heavy state and federal tax burdens, along with competition 
from an unregulated medical marijuana market, have made it difficult 
for them to do business.

But at least some relief is here: This month, two new laws take 
effect, one to regulate and tax medical marijuana, and one to cut 
Washington's three-level excise tax on pot to a single, 37 percent tax.

Despite some industry gripes and those tweaks to Washington's legal 
pot law, which voters passed in 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults 
over 21, officials and legalization backers say the state's slow and 
deliberate effort to regulate marijuana has been a success.

A year after stores opened on July 8, 2014, here's a look at the 
state of legal weed here.

Washington has racked up more than $250 million in marijuana sales in 
the past year - roughly $62 million of which constitute marijuana 
excise taxes. That's beyond the state's original forecast of $36 
million. And when state and local sales and other taxes are included, 
the total payday for the state and local governments tops $70 million.

That's real money, if only a drop in Washington's $38 billion 
two-year budget. Colorado's recreational sales began Jan. 1, 2014, 
and brought in taxes of $44 million in the first year.

The tax revenue could continue to keep climbing.

And as other states watch Washington and Colorado, the only other 
state with legal marijuana sales, bring in more money, they're ever 
more seriously considering following suit, as Oregon and Alaska have already.

"Nobody's counting on the revenue from cannabis sales to save us, but 
it has an impact," David Zuckerman, a Vermont state senator and 
legalization advocate, said during a recent visit to Seattle. "The 
more important thing is that the sky didn't fall in Colorado. The 
tidal wave hasn't hit Seattle. They're showing us that this can be done."

The flip side has been the burden of the taxes on pot businesses, 
with marijuana taxed 25 percent each time it moves from the growers 
to the processers to the retailers. That's been especially tough on 
retailers, who must pay federal income tax on the marijuana tax they 
turn over to the state.

James Lathrop, who owns Seattle's first legal marijuana shop, 
Cannabis City, says that, through the end of 2014, his estimated 
federal tax liability was $510,000, on top of the $778,000 he owed 
the state on $3.1 million in sales. "I'm basically doing this for 
free," Lathrop says.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom