Oakland Marijuana Tax

Interesting news on the marijuana front from last nights city council meeting in Oakland. Becks has the story over at Living in the O

On Tuesday, the Finance Committee took the first big step towards placing a marijuana tax on the ballot. And despite the Tribune’s take on this issue, this tax, if passed, will not just apply to the four medical cannabis dispensaries currently operating in Oakland.

Let me back up a bit though, since the entire story is quite interesting. A couple months ago, James Anthony, a land use attorney who represents Harborside Health Center (one of the four permitted dispensaries), approached several council members about placing a business tax on the ballot. All four dispensaries came on board with the proposal and agreed to pay a tax at ten times the rate of their current tax - 1.2% (or $12 per $1000 of gross receipts).

To me, this is fairly incredible. An industry stepped forward and said, please raise our taxes! Now, it’s not unprecedented in the medical cannabis and larger cannabis community. Those in the industry are mostly willing and happy to pay taxes, as long as they’re left alone by law enforcement.

I thought that this part of the article was particularly awesome

From the Oakland Tribune

Richard Lee, owner of the Coffeeshop Blue Sky, had a similar take, but said he would support any tax between $12 and $24 per $1,000, and does not expect a "patient revolt." He said Coffeeshop Blue Sky would take the financial hit, without passing costs on to patients.

...without passing costs on to patients.

Now what other industry does that?

Like the City of Oakland, The State of California could really use these revenues right now...and here we have the medical marijuana community coming forward to say...Please tax us...we won't even pass on the cost to consumers.

This kind of thing never happens. What an opportunity.

It's time to tax & regulate marijuana state wide. Contact your legislator and urge them to support AB 390.