tax revenue have come from Colorado<\/a> and Washington already, and the states are putting that money to good use.<\/p>\nTax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Surpasses Alcohol in Colorado<\/h2>\n
After being legal for about a year and a half, medical and recreational marijuana already brought in $117 million in tax revenue as of August 2015, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.<\/p>\n
From July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015, Colorado earned almost $70 million in tax revenue from marijuana, compared to almost $42 million in tax revenue from alcohol. The state earned so much from marijuana taxes that they had to initiate a marijuana tax holiday because of their state\u2019s tax structure. Colorado waived taxes for some marijuana transactions on September 16, costing them about $3 million to $4 million in revenue.<\/p>\n
Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, pointed out in a statement that other states are missing out on a really helpful revenue stream.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy how much revenue our state used to flush down the drain by forcing marijuana sales into the underground market,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s even crazier that so many states are still doing it. Tax revenue is just one of many good reasons to replace marijuana prohibition with a system of regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington Collected About $83 Million in Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales in Just Over a Year<\/h3>\n
Washington did not start to officially sell legal marijuana until July of 2014. By August 2015, the state had already made about $83 million in tax revenue from marijuana, according to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.<\/p>\n
The state is using that money for a number of causes, like education, but they are also allocating some of the funds for further study of marijuana. About $8 million is being used on different studies, from medicinal applications to the short- and long-term effects of marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n
Legalizing Marijuana Could Lead to Billions in Tax Revenue<\/h3>\n
As additional states explore the legalization of marijuana, the data regarding tax revenue can be a major influencer. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, believes that federal marijuana legalization<\/a> could have a massive tax benefit.<\/p>\nTheir 2010 study on the subject concluded that marijuana legalization could lead to $8.7 billion a year in federal and state tax revenue, assuming that marijuana would be taxed in a similar manner to alcohol and tobacco.<\/p>\n
With new states looking into changes in marijuana legislation, this tax data\u00a0and all of the good coming from the revenue stream can have a serious impact in changing views on legalizing cannabis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal. This is now a large factor in the legalization debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[45,35,57,83,70,67,75],"yoast_head":"\n
Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dispensaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-29T19:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-18T18:59:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dispensariescom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/\",\"name\":\"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-29T19:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-18T18:59:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\"},\"description\":\"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dispensaries Editor\"},\"description\":\"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax","description":"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax","og_description":"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/","og_site_name":"Dispensaries","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","article_published_time":"2016-04-29T19:00:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-18T18:59:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dispensaries Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dispensariescom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dispensaries Editor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/","name":"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing | Cannabis Tax","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-04-29T19:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-18T18:59:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0"},"description":"Tax revenue from marijuana sales are often game changing for states and local communities, where cannabis is legal - a factor in the legalization debate.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/tax-revenue-from-marijuana-sales\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tax Revenue from Marijuana Sales Are Game Changing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/","name":"Dispensaries","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0","name":"Dispensaries Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dispensaries Editor"},"description":"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}