These news stories all say the same thing: tax-and-regulate legal marijuana won’t reduce the black market. And, we already know it won’t raise revenue for anything more than its own regulatory maintenance.
A marijuana “prevention tax” could mean lagging sales, insufficient revenue.
A medical study released this week finds that 9,973 marijuana-related emergency room visits occurred in Colorado from 2012-2016, more than triple the number that occurred prior to legalization.
A study published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal finds that an estimated five in ten new cases of psychosis in Amsterdam and three in ten new cases in London are linked with high potency marijuana use.
H.418 would give all 16- and 17-year-olds who register to vote in their towns and cities the right to vote in all municipal elections.
S.54 would impose a 16 percent excise tax on retail sales. Sales of marijuana for resale would be exempt. Also, municipalities could enact a two percent “local option” tax on retail sales. There would be no other sales tax.
The House introduced a retail marijuana bill on Friday while a similar Senate bill was being prepped for a committee vote. Neither bill would set taxes high enough to cover costs expected by the Marijuana Commission.
Establishing a retail market for marijuana will lead to increased marketing, which will have an effect on Vermont youth consumption, Vermont Marijuana Commission Vice Chair Jake Perkinson said Tuesday.
Pot, psychosis, and violence are connected. Heavy pot users are 3-4 times more likely to develop psychosis. People with psychosis are far more prone to violence when they consume drugs — and their favorite drug is marijuana.
Just paying the state’s estimated $20 million operational costs of “tax and regulate” legal marijuana would require sales and excise taxes of 27 percent, almost three times the 10 percent tax rate in Maine.
Research shows heavy use of marijuana by adolescents is responsible for 8-15 percent of adult schizophrenia, according to a report in Oregon’s Mail-Tribune newspaper.
The Vermont Medical Society has voted against commercial marijuana, saying it will increase human suffering and state budgetary pressures and do little to hinder the black market.