Just sifting through and cleaning things up, readers.
"R.I. revenues from medical marijuana miss the mark" by Amy Anthony Associated Press August 17, 2015
It begs the question: what were they smoking?
PROVIDENCE — It has been two years since Rhode Island launched its medical marijuana market and opened dispensaries around the state, but tax revenues haven’t been quite as high as state officials expected.
A le$$on for the legislators in this state?
There are now three medical marijuana dispensaries — also known as compassion centers — selling marijuana to patients in Rhode Island, with the state collecting a 4 percent surcharge and a 7 percent sales tax on all their transactions. While revenues are increasing, some centers say they’re facing increasing competition from caregivers who can grow and sell medical marijuana without paying taxes to the state.
That's why they legalized it. It's for the health of their budgets, not your physical ailments.
‘‘There are people out there who’ve made this a full-time business,’’ said Chris Reilly, a spokesman for the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence. ‘‘It’s a competitive force that’s real.’’
I don't like it. It's the most regretful vote I've ever cast.
State officials report that medical marijuana revenues are about half of what was predicted as the state prepared to legalize compassion centers. The dispensaries don’t have to disclose sales figures, but the state discloses aggregate figures for the revenues it collects.
Revenues are down everywhere during the Great Amerikan Economic Recovery.... whoops!!
See: We Have Already Witnessed The First 1300 Points Of The Stock Market Crash
Of 2015
You may want to light up!
In 2012, the Rhode Island Department of Revenue estimated that sales tax from medical marijuana would total approximately $2 million and that the surcharge would total approximately $1.1 million by 2016. Now, the department is projecting that sales tax will be about $1 million and the surcharge about $675,000 in fiscal year 2016.
‘‘One million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but if you think about meals and beverages, on the sales tax side, that’s about 20 percent of our sales tax, that’s $150 million to $160 million a year or more,’’ said Paul Dion, the chief of the Office of Revenue Analysis at the state Revenue Department.
Actually, if you legalized the cocaine.... $$$$$?????
The Revenue Department’s estimates in 2011 were based on estimates it received from compassion centers as they prepared to open, Dion said. The department did not take into account an increase in caregivers because it expected the compassion centers to do that, he said.
While the revenues have been lower than projected, they are increasing. The number of medical marijuana patients has also increased, from 4,241 in 2011 to 11,620 this year, according to the latest data from the state Health Department....
(Blog editors exhales and forgets what we were talking about)
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Whatever you do, don't call the cops.
Now that I'm all buzzed it's time to say goodbye for the night.
