“The legalization of hashish in Arizona has been a boon for our financial system and the state tax coffers.”
By David Abbott, Arizona Mirror
Medical marijuana gross sales in Arizona continued to slip in March, dropping for the fifth consecutive month as leisure adult-use hashish gross sales soared to new heights.
The Arizona Division of Income additionally revised February gross sales upwards by a number of million {dollars}.
In March, medical marijuana dipped to beneath $50 million for the primary time since leisure gross sales started in January 2021, registering simply $49.4 million.
Medical gross sales peaked at almost $73 million in March 2021, then fluctuated from the mid-$60 tens of millions for the following six months. Since October, medical marijuana gross sales have dropped by no less than $1.5 million each month.
Leisure gross sales have rebounded after a small lull in January 2022, going up no less than $2 million per thirty days in February and March, which totaled $72.3 million alone.
Complete gross sales for each packages in March have been $121.8 million.
State tax analysts additionally revised February gross sales: Estimated medical gross sales have been adjusted upward by $1.2 million to $53.7 million, whereas adult-use hashish gross sales clocked in at $2.3 million greater than beforehand believed, touchdown at nearly $71 million.
The revised complete for all hashish gross sales in February was $123.8 million.
Leisure gross sales have been rising constantly since March 2021, when gross sales hovered round $60 million.
Tax collections in March rose to $21.3 million, with $4.1 million from medical gross sales, $5.6 million in gross sales taxes for all hashish gross sales and $11.9 from the 16 p.c excise tax on leisure gross sales.
The state collects a 16 p.c excise tax on leisure gross sales along with the 5.5 p.c state gross sales tax. Medical marijuana sufferers pay simply the gross sales tax. Hashish customers additionally pay metropolis and county gross sales taxes.
Tax collections for hashish gross sales in Arizona have steadily elevated all through the primary yr of authorized leisure gross sales, and legislative funds analysts launched a report in March displaying that hashish taxes have surpassed alcohol and tobacco taxes for the primary time.
“The legalization of hashish in Arizona has been a boon for our financial system and the state tax coffers,” Arizona Dispensary Affiliation Govt Director Sam Richard stated. “The monetary advantages are vital however the social influence can’t be understated, as residents now not should stay in concern of getting their lives disrupted by low degree marijuana arrests and convictions.”
In keeping with the Joint Legislative Funds Committee, marijuana taxes in March totaled greater than the state’s tobacco and liquor taxes mixed: Tobacco taxes yielded $1.7 million and the liquor tax added $3.7 million to the state’s common fund. However marijuana gross sales taxes have been $6.3 million, with $4.7 million going to the overall fund, $1 million distributed to counties and $631,124 to cities.
The JLBC report doesn’t embrace schooling, metropolis and county taxes—native jurisdictions cost a further 2 p.c or so for all marijuana gross sales—nor the excise tax on leisure gross sales, because the excise tax is distributed to particular packages outlined in Proposition 207.
Prop. 207, accredited by voters in 2020, legalized grownup use of hashish and specified public use for the excise tax.
One-third is devoted to neighborhood and provisional neighborhood school districts; 31 p.c to public security—police, hearth departments, hearth districts, first responders—25 p.c to the Arizona Freeway Consumer Income Fund, and 10 p.c to the justice reinvestment fund, devoted to offering public well being companies, counseling, job coaching and different social companies for communities which have been adversely affected and disproportionately impacted by marijuana arrests and criminalization.