The legalization of recreational cannabis can put a big dent in a state’s pre-existing medical marijuana market.
Patient counts in Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oregon – the only states with both an active recreational marijuana industry and a pre-existing MMJ patient database – have all suffered in the months and years since the launch of an adult-use market in each.
In each state shown in the chart above, MMJ customers pay less in taxes than recreational consumers.
Medical customers pay only the standard sales tax rate, while adult-use consumers pay taxes ranging from 10% in Nevada to 17% in both Massachusetts and Oregon.
Colorado and Nevada also tax adult-use cannabis at the wholesale level, which is indirectly passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
But not all MMJ programs are created equal.