By virtue of it being legal the prices are lower than street prices.
They probably used the street prices for their tax expectations.
Pretty funny....
Its not like legal gambling that requires casinos that cannot operate illegally in practice, at least not so that they can compete..
Making it legal makes it even easier to buy it illegally without paying the taxes.
And it takes up less room than tobacco does relative to use/demand, so even easier to pirate. Alcohol is that hardest.
Do these two sentences contradict each other?
The problem is that buying pot is less expensive on the streets where people don’t have to pay taxes or fees.
Medical marijuana is also less expensive than recreational pot, so those with medical cards are sticking to buying that way.
“Recreational Pot Not Bringing In Tax Money That Was Expected”
Completely predictable, which I did on another site at the beginning of the year. Some Stoner got all indignant when I said due to the high taxes Black market / Cartels would adjust their price / increase the quality accordingly to undercut Colorado’s legal weed.
Funny thing, that free market......
Ironically the only way to stop this "illegal" pot is to impose harsh penalties...the war on drugs continues!
Liberal leftist potheads are just like all liberal leftists...they have a delusional view of how people actually behave.
Democrats passed it because they needed more tax revenue.
Watch them go nuts now.
It’s hard to compete with the mexican drug cartels. After all, they don’t have to pay any taxes or fees, and their labor doesn’t either. As a matter of fact, we subsidize the cartels’ labor through EBT, free housing and medical, and guarantee them safe passage across the border. Even our DOJ and BP sell them guns, and babysit their kids. Who in their right mind would want to sell dope above board, when uncle sam is giving the competition such a sweet deal?
Yet the same political ruling class in CO think that they can pass laws to eliminate guns from the streets....
I don’t care how much money it brings in to the state. Anything that undermines the WoD is a good thing. Now if only we could start rolling back the damage it has done to the Constitution, we’d be getting somewhere. I don’t see any indication of that happening though. The powers that be have gotten a lot of what they wanted out of it.
Druggies cheating the tax man. Do tell.
Guessing there will be an adjustment in street-level prices. Probably the adjustment will impact prices of all streams feeding this market.
Seems like this would mean that the usage hasn’t really changed much and most people that are going to use pot, already are, and they are using their known suppliers. I would imagine a law abiding newcomer to pot use would go the legal route, if not for any other reason that they wouldn’t have any illegal contacts to buy from. If lower than expected tax income is happening, then less people are using it than expected.
Guess they missed the part about how it’s plant and you can grow it....
“the state predicted it would pull in more than $33 million in new taxes in the first six months. The actual revenue came up more than $21 million short. “
I don’t know where this article got its numbers but they are outright lies. The article is claiming pot taxes have only brought in $12 million when in the first six months over $25 million was collected.
Bumper Sticker -
Keep the Government out of my Bong.