Figuring out an appropriate marijuana tax policy is more complicated than it sounds. In Washington State, there is a 25% tax at three different stages of cannabis production: from the grower to the processor, from the processor to the retailer, and the retailer to the customer. Will those high taxes foster the black market that we are trying to eliminate?
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Tags: colorado, legalization, taxes, Washington.
By:
Rob Schmidt. Permalink: 
Shortlink: http://weedi.st/GtPtM
Tags: colorado, legalization, taxes, Washington.
By:
Rob Schmidt. Permalink: Shortlink: http://weedi.st/GtPtM
Of couse it will. Why should people pay higher prices and let the Gov tax the hell out of them ….. when they can simply grow thier own. Why impose such a rediculously high tax on this item. Whey not just legalize it completely and just tax it like ever other legal item you can buy on the market today. Thier greed is causing them to "regulate" away a good thing.
Of corse it will, being that qualifying the statement is there has to be legalization, before a 'Black Market' can exist. Till then, a different underground market exists.
No matter the commodity, Govt has always made money/taxes, when a legal means of commerce exists. So the Times article is somewhat misleading, as if there is a question where some might, or might not go Black Market. The action of legality would provide an immense amount of users an available legal market that most would use.
The problem of over taxing is a realistic concern. When a commodity that competes with Alcohol costs a number of times more due to taxation than Alcohol, all that is really accomplished is guaranteed continued profits on the Alcohol.
If this paradigm is foisted onto Hemp, then those gaurantees will happen for Corn, soy, wood fiber and on and on.
While not a precedence, govt assuring winners and losers, much of the benefits would be abrogated in legalization with high taxation, a condition America seems to excel at… that corporate protectionism.