Mind Boggling Ganja RevenueWe have to sell more weed!’: Colo

[Sir X]

We have to sell more weed!’: Colorado county issues first-ever marijuana tax figures

Published time: February 26, 2014 03:05Get short URL



Reuters/Rick Wilking




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Drugs, Economy, Law, Medicine, Politics,USA

A recreational marijuana store located in southern Colorado became the first business of its kind in the state to announce the tax totals from the new industry that pot advocates say will be a boon for state education and struggling local economies.
Finance officials in Pueblo County, the tenth most populated county in Colorado, announced that the two marijuana shops there have earned approximately $1 million in sales in January. That sum has produced approximately $56,000 in local sales taxes.
Pueblo County is the only community between Denver, Colorado and the New Mexico state line where recreational marijuana stores are permitted by law. Two shops were opened in January, the first month in which recreational marijuana was legal in Colorado, and three more stores have since opened in February.
Along with the sales tax figure, officials told the Pueblo Chieftain that the county also collected $70,400 in licensing and renewal fees in January alone. County Commissioner Liane McFayden said that $100,000 in the first month is far ahead of the $400,000 in revenue she predicted for the entire year.
“The irony is that the only new revenue we have coming in is in marijuana and yet we have to open a new judicial building,” she said.
County Budget and finance Director Cal Hamler responded by joking, “We have to sell more weed!”
The state taxes recreational marijuana at a 10-percent rate, but then refunds 15-percent of that total back to the counties where the drug was first sold. There are 160 license pot stores throughout Colorado and each has until February 20 to publicize its sales tax totals. Pueblo County was simply the first to do so.
County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz told the Associated Press that the marijuana industry could generate as much as $670,000 in new tax revenue for Pueblo County in 2014. If the current pace continues, Gilbert said, the state will earn $11.2 million in marijuana sales this year. That is especially remarkable when considering that the county’s annual budget is $165 million.
“Being really the only real retail marijuana outlet in southern Colorado, the numbers don’t surprise me,” Commissioner McFayden told KRDO-TV in Colorado. “Certainly we have a sheriff and a prosecutor in our district attorney not very excited about marijuana. The likelihood is it’s going to be the best avenue for us to open up our judicial building.”
It’s impossible to predict the total amount of revenue the entire state will receive by the end of the year, yet tax officials have forecast that the additional revenue could amount to $67 million. An estimated $27.5 million will be put aside for education and other regional needs, while a large percentage of the remainder will be recycled and used to regulate the marijuana industry itself.

http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/ICSB/2013/65.pdf
Government as Entrepreneurs: Savings
from a Regulated Marijuana Market in
Jamaica
Governments acting as entrepreneurs are reflected in their ability to act in new and innovative ways
and their willingness to undertake policy actions that have uncertain outcomes. One of such policy
actions that have far-reaching entrepreneurial effects is whether or not to regulate the marijuana
market. This paper examines the savings that could be accrued if the marijuana market in Jamaica
was regulated- savings from the Constabulary and Correctional Services Departments with the
elimination of enforcement costs, as well as income that could be earned if marijuana was taxed
like other goods. This paper estimates that in 2011 enforcement costs (marijuana arrests,
prosecutions and incarceration expenses) in Jamaica were approximately J$12.2 billion in
government expenditure; between J$473 million - J$665 million annually could be earned if
marijuana was taxed like normal goods and between J$1.5 billion – J$2.3 billion if marijuana was
taxed at rates similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol. An additional US$14 billion could be
earned if companies were allowed to export marijuana and then were taxed. This paper will
contribute additional knowledge on the value of marijuana production in Jamaica, in terms of the
amount of revenues that can be earned from the export of marijuana. It will also discuss the
implications for both future academic research and public policy.
Keywords: Government as entrepreneurs, regulated marijuana market

http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/ICSB/2013/65.pdf

[Willi]

Another thing Jamaica joking with. How many oppotunities can one country spurn. We love bruk pocket suh?

[Sir X]

Christian Marijuana Dispensary Reconciles Dogma and Dope While Battling the IRS

"I prayed to the Lord and God said ‘Open up a pot shop'"

By Katy Steinmetz / San Francisco @katysteinmetzFeb. 26, 20140

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Bryan Davies
Katy Steinmetz / TIME
Bryan Davies, owner of medical marijuana dispensary Canna Care, leads supporters in prayer before facing the Internal Revenue Service in tax court on Feb. 24, 2014.

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Early in the morning on Feb. 24, a large man with a long white beard and big cowboy hat gathered with about a dozen other people to pray outside the San Francisco branch of the United States tax court. In a kettledrum voice, Bryan Davies led the group in the Lord’s Prayer before asking, “If there is any evil here, let it be sent to the lake of fire!” Then Davies strode into the federal building, where he and his wife, Lanette, took on the Internal Revenue Service in a case that could set an important precedent for the nation’s rapidly growing legal marijuana industry.

At issue is a nearly $875,000 tax bill that the Davies’ have refused to pay on the grounds that a 1982 law meant to prevent drug traffickers from deducting business expenses should not apply to Canna Care, their small “Christian-based” medical marijuana dispensary in Sacramento—or any other marijuana dispensary legal under state law. Even if the Davies’ don’t win that argument, there are legal precedents for the dispensary to get a big discount on that bill if owners can prove they’re involved in two trades. So for two days of testimony, the usually staid federal tax court was given over to a detailed examination of what, exactly, constitutes a Christian cannabis business that claims to spend as much time serving the community as it does selling weed-infused lollipops.

The idea for merging marijuana and ministry came through prayer, the couple said during testimony. They had been exposed to medical marijuana when a doctor recommended Lanette Davies’ daughter use it to alleviate symptoms from a bone disease and it “made her life livable,” she said. Bryan Davies became a convert after finding it helped ease an arthritic condition that affects his spine. Trying to live on Social Security benefits and short on cash, Davies says he asked God for guidance. “I got on my knees, and I prayed to the Lord,” he told the court. “And God said … ‘Open up a pot shop.’”

Davies Canna Care
Katy Steinmetz / TIME
The Davies’ set up that shop in 2005, in the back corner of a small industrial complex in a neighborhood of Sacramento called Del Paso Heights. The dispensary is marked only by an illustration of an aluminum can with the word care wrapped across the front. Inside, a security guard mans the door to a windowless lobby. A table offers pamphlets on using medical marijuana to treat chronic pain next to bibles that are given away for free. The walls are a crowded tapestry of American flags, cannabis leaves, eagles, crucifixes and the “Don’t Tread on Me” gear favored by Tea Partiers (though Lanette says she’s a staunch Democrat and Bryan calls himself a libertarian). In the back room, employees sell strains of weed like Hindu Kush, Green Candy and L.A. Confidential, starting at $3.95 per gram.

That work of selling dope, the couple said in response to questioning from IRS lawyers, is consistent with the dispensary’s broader mission to help and heal. A patron might arrive having been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease or terminal cancer, Bryan said: “They’ve been told they have so much time to live … and they’re angry with God.” He and other Canna Care employees would often pray with those patients, they testified, in what he said was an attempt to bring them back from the “precipice.” Bryan also said during testimony that he could exorcise patients who “don’t realize they’re hosting a demon.”

Marijuana is an unlikely form of outreach to Christians. A new survey of Americans’ attitudes about marijuana released Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute found that the majority of the 3,390 Christians polled, 52%, said they are against legalization. Opposition is strongest among Hispanic Catholics (67%) and white evangelical Protestants (61%), while lowest among Jewish Americans (23%) and the unaffiliated (27%). Robert Jones, CEO of the firm that conducted the survey, partly attributes the opposition among Christians to their view of the body “as a temple” that shouldn’t be soiled with substances like illegal drugs or alcohol or cigarettes.

The Davies’ use the Bible to reconcile selling marijuana with their faith, believing that cannabis was among the “seed-bearing plants” the book of Genesis says God gave man on the sixth day. “You’ve got to remember who created it,” Bryan said recently, shortly after the dispensary employees finished their daily 6 p.m. prayer.

DSC00747
Katy Steinmetz / TIME
Prevailing in tax court will require a different standard of proof. The provision at the heart of the case is an obscure bit of federal tax code known as 280E, which states that taxpayers who are involved in drug trafficking are not allowed to deduct any business expenses—like payroll or rent or health benefits—that would be standard for other legal businesses. The law, put on the books more than a decade before any state legalized medical marijuana, has become an expensive reality for dispensaries; while medical marijuana is now legal in 20 states, and recreational marijuana is legal in two, pot is still a Schedule I controlled substance in the eyes of the federal government. And that means that regardless of state law, all dispensaries are drug traffickers as far as the IRS is concerned.

Canna Care’s disputed tax bill comes from $2.6 million in business expenses that the IRS has disallowed under that code. Getting a ruling that 280E should be revisited and no longer applied to medical marijuana dispensaries, as the Davies’ lawyer argued, would be a landmark decision for the burgeoning marijuana industry. But by the time testimony ended Feb. 25th, that appeared unlikely.

Throughout the two day hearing, the Davies’ were rebuked for using the witness stand as a soap box and rambling rather than giving forthright answers. One of their witnesses was disallowed because the IRS had not been notified of her appearance in advance, and their lawyer could not immediately recall what “THC”—or tetrahydrocannabinol, the mind-altering ingredient in cannabis—stood for. Canna Care employees testified that they did not know how their salaries were determined or by whom. Meanwhile, other attorneys arguing related cases have expressed concerns that a ruling against Canna Care might be “very detrimental” to their efforts to see the code reformed.

A ruling from judge Diana Kroupa may not be forthcoming for at least six months. As testimony ended, Kroupa seemed to acknowledge the shift in popular opinion in favor of legal marijuana, but implied that it would have little bearing on the outcome of a case that hinges, at its core, on an interpretation of fine-grained tax law. “The court is aware that there is a trend,” Kroupa said as the hearing concluded, “but the law is the law.”

Exiting the courtroom, the Davies’ remained upbeat. “I know what we’re doing is the right thing,” Lanette said, “Whether it goes for us or against us, that’s in God’s hands.”



Read more: Medical Marijuana Taxes: Christian Dispensary IRS Canna Care | TIME.com http://nation.time.com/2014/02/26/me...#ixzz2uSmtimqM


Government as Entrepreneurs: Savings
from a Regulated Marijuana Market in
Jamaica
Governments acting as entrepreneurs are reflected in their ability to act in new and innovative ways
and their willingness to undertake policy actions that have uncertain outcomes. One of such policy
actions that have far-reaching entrepreneurial effects is whether or not to regulate the marijuana
market. This paper examines the savings that could be accrued if the marijuana market in Jamaica
was regulated- savings from the Constabulary and Correctional Services Departments with the
elimination of enforcement costs, as well as income that could be earned if marijuana was taxed
like other goods. This paper estimates that in 2011 enforcement costs (marijuana arrests,
prosecutions and incarceration expenses) in Jamaica were approximately J$12.2 billion in
government expenditure; between J$473 million - J$665 million annually could be earned if
marijuana was taxed like normal goods and between J$1.5 billion – J$2.3 billion if marijuana was
taxed at rates similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol. An additional US$14 billion could be
earned if companies were allowed to export marijuana and then were taxed. This paper will
contribute additional knowledge on the value of marijuana production in Jamaica, in terms of the
amount of revenues that can be earned from the export of marijuana. It will also discuss the
implications for both future academic research and public policy.
Keywords: Government as entrepreneurs, regulated marijuana market

http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/ICSB/2013/65.pdf

[Sir X]

What say you Willi ?......Keep in mind the tourist market was not even factored in,the hub thing is small time compared to ganja revenue,yet I dont see it being pushed like the hub .

Wi nuh narmal,the reason why states went to decriminalisation and legalisation is because they went bankrupt ,bruk or struggled post recession 08 ,we have been struggling since independence. ....logical and progressive.

Government as Entrepreneurs: Savings from a Regulated Marijuana Market in Jamaica
Governments acting as entrepreneurs are reflected in their ability to act in new and innovative ways and their willingness to undertake policy actions that have uncertain outcomes. One of such policy actions that have far-reaching entrepreneurial effects is whether or not to regulate the marijuana
market. This paper examines the savings that could be accrued if the marijuana market in Jamaica was regulated- savings from the Constabulary and Correctional Services Departments with the elimination of enforcement costs, as well as income that could be earned if marijuana was taxed
like other goods. This paper estimates that in 2011 enforcement costs (marijuana arrests, prosecutions and incarceration expenses) in Jamaica were approximately J$12.2 billion in government expenditure; between J$473 million - J$665 million annually could be earned if marijuana was taxed like normal goods and between J$1.5 billion – J$2.3 billion if marijuana was taxed at rates similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol. An additional US$14 billion could be earned if companies were allowed to export marijuana and then were taxed. This paper will contribute additional knowledge on the value of marijuana production in Jamaica, in terms of the amount of revenues that can be earned from the export of marijuana. It will also discuss the implications for both future academic research and public policy.

Keywords: Government as entrepreneurs, regulated marijuana market

http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/ICSB/2013/65.pdf