Here in Washington, Marijuana has been legal for about two whole months, and while there isn't yet a system in place to allow the legal growth and distribution of the product, the Powers that Be have already decided that it will be the subject of a 25% tax at each level of handling: Growth, Distribution, and Retail. The math experts out there will realize that this is not a 75% markup, but rather a 95% markup, assuming the taxes are all passed along to the final purchaser.
However, the Legislature is not content to just tax recreational marijuana use, and now they want to add a 25% tax on medicinal marijuana use.
Okay. I'm not a user of marijuana, for either recreational or medicinal purpose. That doesn't mean I'm a big believer in taxing the heck out of it, even though everyone should have seen this coming. First...I don't think you tax medicine(although, with the number of people that are using medical marijuana for 'insomnia' we can debate just how much legitimate medicinal use is going on). Second...what makes the Legislature think people are going to pay it?
This isn't something like cigarettes, or alcohol, where people are used to going to the store to buy it. You raise the taxes on those, and people will bitch and moan, but they will still go to the store and buy it(unless they live close enough to the Oregon/Idaho border). Marijuana isn't like that. People have been buying that illegally for decades. If they can get it for 50% cheaper, then I think they will keep buying it the way they always have.
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