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Arizona’s recreational weed program brought in lots of green for education and health services in 2021, the first year cannabis was legally available for purchase in the Grand Canyon State.
Customers had purchased more than $1.23 billion worth of cannabis products since voters approved a referendum to legalize the drug for adult use in November of 2020. More than $196 million had been collected in taxes, according to Arizona’s Department of Revenue.
The actual figures were likely higher, as data from December was incomplete.
More than half of the revenue came from Arizona’s medical marijuana program, which had been in place since 2010. Sales of recreational products, which are taxed at a higher rate, accounted for $528 million, data showed. Most of the new revenue was allocated to community colleges and county health departments.
“This is a momentous day for Arizona,” Samuel Richard, the executive director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, said in a press release.
“Rarely does an industry produce over $1.2 billion in revenue in its first year. This number shows that the legalization of cannabis is something Arizonans believe strongly in and the many benefits it contributes to the state’s economy.”
The windfall exceeded the expectations of state officials and also eclipsed the first year of adult-use sales in more populous Washington state as well as smaller regional states like Colorado, Oregon and Nevada, the organization said.
Cannabis is fully legal in 18 states, Washington DC and Guam.
In New York, Albany officials projected the state would see $363 million in tax revenue a year once its adult-use program becomes established. Cannabis licenses had not yet been awarded since lawmakers voted to legalize the initiative last spring.
Marijuana is still illegal on the federal level, listed by the government as a Schedule 1 substance alongside far more dangerous substances such as heroin, MDMA and LSD, and above potentially deadly Schedule 2 narcotics like fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.
A Republican-backed bill in Congress would legalize the plant on the federal level for adults over 21 and allow individual states to determine if they should prohibit it.
With Post wires
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