Medical Marijuana in California: More Taxes, More Regulations!

For years, the medical marijuana industry in California went mostly unregulated, and it worked pretty well. There wasn’t rampant abuse and fraud, and the sky certainly didn’t fall. But nothing good lasts forever; the party for the medical marijuana industry and its consumers is officially over.

With new regulations comes a brand new state agency (The Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation) that will oversee the licensing of all facets of the medical cannabis industry, and with new regulations comes new taxes. After all, someone has to pay for the new agency and oversight, and that “someone” would be the taxpayers, whether they consume cannabis or not. Taxes don’t discriminate.

California officials are also contemplating a 15% sales tax, which would be added to whatever taxes local communities decide to impose. The revenues will be divided among the new BMMR, state parks, the state’s “general fund,” the state’s Natural Resources Agency, and drug treatment programs.

The effect of all this will be to suppress future growth in the medical marijuana industry and keep a certain portion of consumers going to the unregulated and untaxed black market for their medicine.  Not the best outcome, but taxes and regulations are inevitable when it comes to cannabis legalization.

Does anyone really think various levels of government officials will allow the re-legalization of marijuana without getting their beaks wet?