Oregon collects over $25 million in Marijuana Tax in first 6 Months
Posted by Sagar Satapathy on August 24, 2016.
Oregon has collected over $25.5 million in tax payments from recreational marijuana from January through the end of July as the expanded recreational marijuana menu appears to have sharply boosted marijuana sales in the state.
The state’s Department of Revenue has released the tax figure on Monday, which includes the start of marijuana-infused edibles sales. The products include a wide variety of snacks, sweets and drinks and were available to anyone 21 and older starting in June. Likewise, medical marijuana stores have been allowed to sell a limited amount of marijuana to anyone 21 and older since last October.
The agency, however, didn’t show how much tax money came from the sale of marijuana buds, and how much came from the expansion of legal recreational marijuana products.
State-licensed dispensaries sold $42.4 million worth of recreational marijuana in June and July alone, after having sold $59.6 million worth from January through May, according to a release of the Department of Revenue. Medical marijuana dispensaries started collecting a 25 percent tax on their recreational marijuana sales in January.
In all, sellers have paid the state a total of $25.5 million in recreational marijuana tax money from the start of January to the end of July, the Department of Revenue reported. State economists estimate that the state will collect about $44.4 million in marijuana taxes in 2016, the first year of the tax.
Notably, recreational marijuana is illegal in as many as 46 states and under the federal law of the United States. However, Oregon legalized recreational marijuana in since 2014.
