Regulations and high taxing impede Washington's cannabis industry success

https://www.seattlebusinessmag.com/...-states-14b-cannabis-industry-really-blooming

Washington is not an easy place to run a cannabis business. I believe the Rec law was flawed from the start and a betrayal of the people who worked their asses off to make cannabis legal. The state's relentless need for new tax revenue and the idea that cannabis could magically infuse the state with all the money it needs has tainted all the legislature's plans. Along with a wrong headed idea that Washington could be a model for cannabis legalization nation-wide has led to terrible policy decisions. This is what happens when people who know nothing of cannabis are put in charge of regulating it.

A friend of mine has a neighbor who works in Olympia. She's a regular bureaucrat, they stuck her working with cannabis licensing. She doesn't know anything about cannabis but she has to try her best to help people plan and run their businesses successfully. She's out of her depths, worked for the liquor control board previously. Without training or experience she's had to jump in and do her job. Helps explain why the planning and execution has been so poor. It is amusing to me that a state employee's job is to help growers figure out how to grow more cannabis but it's also depressing.

A local dispensary I use has a list of all the taxes placed on marijuana posted on a wall and the total tax is now 53% when all taxes are included. This article talks about a 37% excise tax but when the total tax burden, the grower is taxed, the processor is taxed, the retailer is taxed and then a local sales tax is added on the final sale, the total tax comes up to 53%. For every $10 you spend in a Washington dis pensary, $5.30 goes to taxes.

There was a vote a couple years ago that's mandatory in Washington for all agricultural products, to make life easy for farmers, to limit the tax on cannabis growers to something like 7%. The tax pamphlet basically called it a formality, like the Washington state voters would be idiots of they voted for it. Of course I voted yes but it lost by a huge margin. The riches tier of growers has made a terrible lobby for Washington's growers because they want to drive everyone else out of the industry. They love these tax rates. The Rec shops not so much.

EvergreenState said:

A local dispensary I use has a list of all the taxes placed on marijuana posted on a wall and the total tax is now 53% when all taxes are included. This article talks about a 37% excise tax but when the total tax burden, the grower is taxed, the processor is taxed, the retailer is taxed and then a local sales tax is added on the final sale, the total tax comes up to 53%. For every $10 you spend in a Washington dis pensary, $5.30 goes to taxes.

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Ouch! Maybe it'll change, doubtful it will. Bet underground is growing like huh?

aridbud said:

Ouch! Maybe it'll change, doubtful it will. Bet underground is growing like huh?

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They'll never get rid of the black market that way!