A Marijuana Tax Hike in Oakland and Nobody Minds
Published July 01, 2009 @ 05:42AM PT
Voters in Oakland are considering a 1500% increase in the city's tax on medicinal marijuana sales, and the measure has a group of supporters that rarely lines up behind any tax hike: everyone.
The city's four marijuana dispensaries were behind the initial proposal to put the tax increase on the July ballot, which has been mailed to Oakland voters and is due by July 21. The new law would increase the tax per $1,000 in receipts from $1.20 to $18 and would make Oakland the first city in the country to directly tax pot sales. Based on marijuana sales from 2007 and 2008, this new tax would bring the struggling city as much as $290,000 in additional revenue next year.
Marijuana sales appear to be recession proof and club operators say they can afford the new tax.
"The market for cannabis is so strong that we'll be able to absorb the cost," (dispensary operator Richard) Lee said.
Lawyer James Anthony wrote the tax law on behalf of the dispensaries.
"It's really about local government and local needs and providing access to medicine for patients in a way that works for the community and for the city," Anthony said.
The dispensaries also support the proposed law because fair taxes are a step toward legalization. The increased public revenue certainly makes legal pot look more attractive to lawmakers.
It seems that a 1.8% tax on medicinal marijuana probably isn't the ceiling, either. Especially if it moves from medical only to general consumers, it would be easy to imagine combined city, state and federal taxes as high as 10% - and nobody would mind because the quality and safety of the drug would improve while the overall price would likely drop.
On another note, the Los Angeles City Council this week moved to close 28 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. One step back...
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Comments (35)
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.
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When this puts an actual dent in the economic problems of the city of Oakland; maybe the whole state will take note. California is just steps away from becoming a failed state. Full out legalization could make the difference between tough times and a complete state failure.
Posted by mikey johnson on 07/01/2009 @ 12:07PM PT
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And those people that say they are saving the economy (politicians/lawyers ), are also the ones coming up with ways they can get out of paying taxes....and they say pot smokers are destroying our economy? they just need to let pot smokers , medical marijuana users, and the dispensaries handle responsibly paying their taxes.
Posted by Charles Medford on 07/13/2009 @ 09:23AM PT
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TAX US FINE, LEGALIZE MARIJUANA.
The price would drop I heard it was estimated at 50 per OZ. well you give an OZ. to me at that price an I'll pay 10.00 more dollars just in taxes I dont care the least.
Remeber this, we make this economy we make this courty operate, So stop trying ti make us dirt poor. All there politicains do is debate, dodge phone calls, there secretaries do all the work. Stop being so lazy stop being so greedy, stop being so against human rights. You need us then we need marijuana legalized an tax it 1,000,000 % then you losers. Do you want the lint out of my pocket too?
Posted by Michael Crawford Jr. on 07/01/2009 @ 06:08PM PT
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Watch the Feds move in and arrest them.....
Posted by jowey styxx on 07/02/2009 @ 04:21PM PT
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I can understand taxing marijuana, but that seems a little absorbant considering that we pay an average of 6-8% on all other purchases. I have always thought that the government was rather idiotic for not legalizing it and taxing it, but how do you plan on making it help the economy if you are raping everyone in the process. And at that point why not raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to that same amount? If their idea is to punish the users, why not punish ALL users? Considering that alcohol kills more people every year then pot ever does, why don't we make that harder to get?
Posted by Nina Walters on 07/03/2009 @ 05:01PM PT
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Damn skippy!!!
Posted by sherry mcculley on 07/08/2009 @ 12:48PM PT
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I am hoping all counties in the USA will realize it's time for a change period. I'd definately pay taxes if mj was legalized, just another tax is all. Marijuana should be legalized in the 1st place.
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/03/2009 @ 08:50PM PT
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FEED the NEED to FREE the SEED!!!
Posted by Holly Crozier on 07/04/2009 @ 06:14AM PT
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High Holly,
I ran across you somewhere the problem here is I don't remember where.
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/09/2009 @ 05:52PM PT
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Our learning curve must look like the horizen,flat as a pancake.
WHEN you tax and raise the price of marijuana,medical or otherwise,you underwrite the existence of the black market and
even allow them to raise their prices,since all they have to do is sell for less.
Posted by Norman Gooding on 07/04/2009 @ 11:36AM PT
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Repealing alcohol prohibition & taxing alcohol, put the bootleggers, essentially, out of business.
Plus, marijuana will be less expensive, because it isn't contraband.
I'll pay the tax.
Posted by Roger Choate on 07/11/2009 @ 10:28PM PT
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Taxing 'marijuana' is a huge mistake. The organic agricultural industry in Cannabis needs to be encouraged, not hobbled by the bureaucratic dysfunction imposed by a chemically-addicted government.
Cannabis is an unique and essential crop.
How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?
Why pay taxes on 'marijuana' to the same government that suppresses Cannabis agriculture?
Better to tax ALL polluting chemically-based industries out of existence, rather than making it harder for the Cannabis industry to make up for seventy years of being prohibited.
Posted by Paul von Hartmann on 07/04/2009 @ 11:37AM PT
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Cannabis agriculture vs. climate changehttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/projectpeace/2009/07/04/cannabis-agriculture-vs-climate-change
Posted by Paul von Hartmann on 07/04/2009 @ 11:40AM PT
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If you want to stop the violence,including the street gangs and vultures of society,full legalization is the only way it is going to happen. Only when everyone can grow their own will the price drop enough to make the cartels and others move on to more profitible fields. Any thing that causes the price to remain where it is just insures that someone is going to go after that money.
Even though we need tax dollars badly right now,using marijuana as a windfall just continues the flow of our money out of the country,but if everyone grew ther own,they would be spending the money formerly used to buy marijuana on buying manufactured goods and services,which would stimulate our economy,a lot better than giving legislators billions of dollars in tax money that they can give to the rich to trickle down to the poor.
Posted by Norman Gooding on 07/04/2009 @ 11:48AM PT
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And all the money we are spending on security at the borders is just good money thrown after bad.it has caused the cartels to move their grow operations inside the borders of the US and into small town America. When you can use a 3 bedroom home to grow a million dollars worth of pot in 7 to 8 months,with 2 or 3 growers working a couple of houses,it doesn't take much math to figure out that it's the profitable thing to do,and the cost of the home compared to the profits realized,makes it just like paying for office space to run any other business.
With their grow operations inside the border,they bypass all that effort of getting it "in country" and and decrease their loss's at the border checks. Plus being able to grow the more exotic strains to increase the profit margin and widen their market base.
It is a criminal cornacopia paradise we are creating for them,at the tax payers expense and it's really disturbing that anyone would want to continue doing the same things we are doing now.
And chasing the cartels out of Mexico just makes them move to a country with no ties to America's War on Drugs and has no love of America's policies,and when they move their money out of Mexico,we end up paying for rebuilding that countries economy,because we just moved 80% of their cash out.
Posted by Norman Gooding on 07/04/2009 @ 01:09PM PT
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The money is not only going over the borders,
These enterprises are also paying their "pocket cops", those that look the other way for the traffickers but arrest the addicts.
Prohibition failed in the past, the Drug war will fail eventually. Kind of funny that the citizens back in the early part of the 20th century were smarter, quicker to change than the modern citizens. Then again chaos is profitable, guns to defend turf, protect from the "bad guy", Barney Fifes to run around chasing bad guys, graft and of course product.
Posted by jowey styxx on 07/12/2009 @ 09:14AM PT
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Please President Obama, the right will never support whatever you do no matter how hard you try. We must push forward and make positive and real change that is not watered down by the Washington lobbying establishment. Cannabis leagalization and regulation is not politically risky anymore. Look at the polls and you will see the nation is becoming more and more open to the idea of creating the tax revenue stream we could gain from a legal cannabis industry, not to mention the inherent reduction in crime due to the suppression of the violent black market which will lose its power by legalization and regulation, and taxation of cannabis for those 21 and over. The constitution grants us liberty so that our government cannot control of personal lives and what we consume if we are hurting no one else. This horrific cannabis prohibtion has caused what is a peaceful thing, cannabis, into a violent black market trade, why, b/c it is a comodity and there is an insuppressible market for it. Why let drug dealers gain obsene profits, when that money can be invested in healthcare and education, both of which have a critical need for funding. The legalization of cannabis will not lead to higher use, if anything studies from Europe show us that a societal tolerance for cannabis makes it not that big of a deal, and people actually consume less cannabis in the Netherlands per capita than in the United States, what more proof do the irrational drug warriors to stop the demonization and criminalization of responsible and law-abiding cannabis users.
Posted by Nathaniel Wallace on 07/05/2009 @ 02:50AM PT
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I feel that a move like Obama supporting marijuana legalization would cause an unexpected divide in the right. True, there will be those that will jump on it just for a reason to go after Obama. But the right consists of far more than neo-cons and religious fundamentalists. I'm sure that there will be many conservatives that will embrace such a move. Legalization would be a far more effective use of our tax dollars and would be effective in shrinking the size of the federal government. It would strengthen states rights and generate tax revenue that would benefit ALL Americans. That combined with the humanitarian side of the issue, legalization becomes very appealing to true conservatives. Check out California state superior court judge Jim Grey's conservative view of cannabis legalization. This is REALLY an opportunity for the left and right to find a little middle ground and maybe work together to get something done against the will of certain leaders on both sides.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yd_IWvLZOQ
Posted by mikey johnson on 07/05/2009 @ 10:05AM PT
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If weed was legalised i certainly would not mind any tax on sales. The money would have to be guaranteed to go for health care and MJ research. I wonder if a state could make that promise??
Rod G
Posted by Roderick E. Gouin on 07/05/2009 @ 11:45AM PT
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A lot of people think marijuana should be legalized. I think so too, and mainly due to financial reasons. The country would collect a huge amount of money that could be invested for our sake
Posted by Andy Lepp on 07/07/2009 @ 06:57PM PT
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PLEASE
Posted by Erica Volpe on 07/08/2009 @ 09:34PM PT
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let me think...
Would I rather pay tax on weed or have a Nazi like team of people paid to put me in jail and destroy my life. They are dedicated good people but do not see they are a pawn of the corporations that make billions enslaving Americans. I know you say those are poor ghetto people so who cares. They just jailed a old pastor that had lived his life to help others (Eddie Leap). They in the intrest of protecting the chemical (legal) drug pushers do not want this weed legal. It would cost them way too much money to allow us to have a choice, for us to have freedom of choice, to quit enslaving Americans, to spend our money to help us rather than to help them.....
CFJ
Posted by Cherokee Fred Jesus on 07/09/2009 @ 07:26AM PT
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lmao
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/09/2009 @ 05:55PM PT
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I question the goodness of the modern Barney Fife. It takes a certain personality to commit to an "enforcement" profession as a choice. I know a few that joined because the uniform gets girls, they could crack heads legally and they would know the territory - predators. A balanced individual chooses other productive professions.
These are willing pawns to the establishment, where else could Barney have power over Gomer - a perfect niche with Andy on vacation.
Posted by jowey styxx on 07/12/2009 @ 09:22AM PT
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I hope the issue of health care wakes up more people. Poles say 72 % want universal health care like Canada enjoys. Our representatives say it will not even be discussed. Why? the ones that make billions by keeping us sick paid our reps millions to buy their vote. The same situation exist with cannabis we all want it it would help our country and stop enslaving our children. But our reps again are bought and paid for by the ones who profit from our destruction.
CFJ
Posted by Cherokee Fred Jesus on 07/09/2009 @ 07:40AM PT
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I agree to all of the above stating the pros of legalization of marijuana really doesnt take a rocket scientist to see these truths are self evident. all in moderation and with responsibility. God bless.
Posted by michael claypotch on 07/09/2009 @ 04:01PM PT
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Dear President Obama,
Please legalize marijuana for all adult American's with chronic pain, AIDS, glaucoma, cancer patient, arthrits, rhematoid arthist (cripping hand disease), etc. especially terminal ill and dying people.
So you understand, I lived in the same apartment for eighteen years (slum lord). I moved home 11/21/2008. The last ten years of Mom's life was spent back and forth between the hospitals, nursing homes, then home again.
I knew Mom's wishes were to die in her own home we (6 children) had help from Hospice, nurses, personal care attendants including her granddaughter for the last ten years).
Mom always complained about the rhematoid arthrits in her knee, her back pain, her spur from arthrits, that she was always cold even though her physcian had her on sedatives, back pain medications, anxiety medications, Thyroid drugs, Tamoxien (breast cancer) Mom weighed-in at eight-eight pounds when she left the nursing home 11/21/2008 to return to her own home.
My oldest brother & I furnished Mom with her special (marijuana) brownies & cookies even though it is illegal in Minnesota. Mom's whole personality changed when she had her special treats and (toked) smoked marijuana, she was more talkative (like the Mom I remembered as a child), happier, didn't hear Mom complain about any pains, informed all of us (six kids) of things we've learned and heard. And heard for eons and still listened to Mom. Christmas day Mom weighed-in at 103 pounds. Mom smoked cigarettes all her life except the last three days of her life.
My Mom passed away 1/3/2009, (my daughter) and Mom's granddaughter of course was in Europe-England (my grandparents are from-Yorkshire, England immgrated to the USA), Paris, Spain and Netherlands (she toked two for her Grandma and me (Its LEGAL there)
Everymorning (we) Mom and I got an email: Good day (England), Wee-wee (France), Buenos Aires & hola (Spain) she had lots of pictures, wrote a journal of each country food prices, travel etc. of all her travels. Now as a parent yourself and having your Grandma pass you informed your children I am sure and in person. I on the other hand to email my daughter and inform her Grandma's passed was the hardest thing I have ever told any of my children (four)
Please
(yes I am personally begging you to legalize marijuana for all adult people in the United States of America.
Sincerly,
Wendy Lange
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/09/2009 @ 08:08PM PT
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good letter wendy everthing you said was true keep up the good work this realy means a lot people that dont go through pain dont understand but you saw how it help your mother so this is a very good letter you gave your mother some peace of mind good letter
Posted by evelyn rasco on 08/22/2009 @ 06:05AM PT
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Eventually, a light bulb will brighten above the heads of policy makers. Money can be generated or additional billions can be wasted to wage 'war' and imprison people over a harmless plant. Kudos to Oakland. However, LA City Council are a disgrace. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta
Posted by Rev Bookburn on 07/10/2009 @ 04:32PM PT
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The money would be going to the community rather than their personal pockets from the lobbyists and under the table.
Sure more money would be made but not for those that are facilitating the current dynamic in the theater.
Posted by jowey styxx on 07/12/2009 @ 09:25AM PT
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High Jowey Styxx,
LMAO this post doesn't like the one they sent me, but then I realized you answered twice. Have a high AM, noon, PM. :0)
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/12/2009 @ 11:34AM PT
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Dear President Obama,
We can go into farrer with details about my Mom. (the morphine that was adminstrated didn't ease the pain)
I forgot of course you can contact me @ hippiewoman69@yahoo.com
I already recieve the news letter from the White House, recently got the H1N1 flu vacanation. I'll wait til 11/2009 so I'll get the right one rather than taking 2 shots (I hate needles). Have a good day. :0)
Sincerly,
Wendy Lange
Posted by Wendy Lange on 07/12/2009 @ 11:40AM PT
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I hope this tax implementation in oakland does change somthing around that can be directly attributed to Mj and not just in thought but on paper then maybe our new Change posterboy president can stop laughing about MJ and actually show some guts towards big Pharma and at least decriminalize it. If you don't want the tax money president Obama then I guess the whole depression is over. Also seems this lame website is now all about climate change like thats going to make any new jobs or rebuild infrastructure, good thinking boss, glad I didnt vote, it's been proven to be a waste over and over again, SSDD thats the new campaign for America!
Posted by John Giordano on 07/15/2009 @ 03:06PM PT
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What a good article.
You should contact the bizymoms Oakland community to get your article featured to their large mom community. http://www.bizymoms.com/oakland/index.php
Posted by Maria Lenova on 07/26/2009 @ 10:11AM PT
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The great news just keeps coming in.
Yesterday, Congress voted to finally lift the 11-year ban on Washington, D.C.’s medical marijuana law.
The House voted 221-202 and the Senate voted 57-35 to approve the measure.
For the last 11 years, under a provision known as the Barr amendment, Congress has prevented Washington, D.C. from implementing the medical marijuana law passed by 69% of voters in 1998.
Repealing this amendment has been a primary focus of MPP's federal lobbying efforts for many years. In 2007, we even hired former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.) — the original author of the amendment — to lobby to overturn it. And our lobbyists have worked directly with members of the House and Senate and their staff since 2006 to eliminate this democracy-unfriendly law.
In fact, senior appropriators in Congress sought out MPP staff to work through specifics and to help better understand D.C.'s medical marijuana law and the complicated legal maneuverings that led to the blocking of its implementation.
MPP would like to thank Congressmen Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), Dave Obey (D-Wis.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) for their strong and abiding support of allowing D.C. to implement its medical marijuana law.
Today's vote represents a victory not just for medical marijuana patients, but for all Americans, who have the right to determine their own policies without federal meddling.
Now we need the same rights in EVERY STATE!!!! In Florida, our organization is collecting petitions to get language on the 2010 ballot to legalize the use of medicinal marijuana. Our site is located at www.pufmm.org and we welcome all registered Florida voters to visit our site, download petitions and get them distributed. The time is now and we need all of your help.
Thanks. Kevin S.
Posted by Kevin Silvey on 12/14/2009 @ 07:08AM PT
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