Last week, I spoke with a college graduate in his late twenties who makes his living selling cannabis in New York, where he moved, from the Midwest, several years ago. He referred to himself as a “care provider,” and asked that I not disclose his real name. He worked in finance and freelance Web design and marketing before shifting to his current career, he said. He sells marijuana in varying amounts, from an eighth of an ounce to a full pound or more, and also sells vaporizer cartridges, infused drinks, cannabis edibles, and psychedelic mushrooms.
Just like eBay Air Jordans, discount smartphones, designer bags, and anything else with a brand name that can be purchased on Craigslist or at a swap meet, a number of legal cannabis companies have had their branding and packaging counterfeited by foreign manufacturers and distributors, causing a flood of bootleg vape cartridges filled with untested and unregulated cannabis oil sold across the globe. As a result, the underground market has created a seemingly never-ending uphill battle for some of the legal weed industry’s leading companies.
They came to the Statehouse wearing marijuana leaves on their clothes, with buttons and T-shirts and fiery testimony about the "failed drug war."
But when legislators cleared the bill to legalize weed in New Jersey — the first real step taken toward marijuana legalization? Many of the state's most ardent and longest-running activists were left wanting more.
When it comes to devising the tax rate for adult-use marijuana, the New Jersey Legislature can take one of three approaches:
1. Establish a set rate. The bill that appears headed to introduction currently calls for a 10 percent tax plus up to an additional 2 percent for municipalities.
2. A graduated rate. Language in previous draft legislation called for an initial 10 percent rate that rose 5 percent a year until reaching 25 percent in year 4.
3. The opposite approach. Start with a 25 percent rate and lower it to 10 percent by year four.
1. Recognize There is a Limit to the Tax Burden the Industry Can Bear
When the details of the legislation were first made public last week, there were reports almost immediately that the proposed initial 10 percent tax rate was too low for Governor Phil Murphy.
That 10 percent rate would be the lowest in the country among states that allow recreational marijuana sales.
Determining the appropriate rate requires legislators to weigh two critical but competing factors: revenue versus black market. It’s an issue directly addressed in the bill:
On a big-sky plateau on the eastern slope of the Cascades, a 10-acre parcel of land has been trashed by illicit pot farmers. Abandoned equipment rusts and jugs of chemicals molder.
Marijuana legalization wasn't supposed to look like this.
Five years into its experiment with legal, regulated cannabis, Washington state is finding that pot still attracts criminals.
There are now more than 19,000 patients in New Jersey’s medical marijuana program and the recent addition of five qualifying conditions is expected to boost that number to more than 40,000 by the end of the next fiscal year.
Deputy Health Commissioner Jackie Cornell said the state is evaluating how many new medical marijuana dispensaries will be needed.