Oregon Rakes in $60 Million in State Sales Taxes from Marijuana
Recreational marijuana sales in Oregon produced $60.2 million in state tax revenue in 2016, the first year of state-taxed pot sales.
For much of the year, marijuana sellers collected a 25 percent sales tax.
To produce the $60.2 million in tax revenue reported by the state Department of Revenue on Friday, total retail sales of marijuana and pot-laced products last year would have had to equal about $241 million.
Marijuana tax revenues exceeded projections, said Mazen Malik, senior economist for the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office. He had estimated marijuana sales would produce $44 million during the year, $16 million less than what came in.
Higher-than-predicted prices for marijuana extracts and edibles may have contributed to the higher than projected tax revenues, Malik said.
Items such as marijuana brownies didn’t have a market before Oregon’s legalization of recreational pot, he said.
“Usually, people would not buy them from cornerside dealers,” Malik...
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