POLITICO: Cannabis Was Supposed to Be a Tax Windfall for States. The Reality Has Been Different.
media mentionIn all, five of the nine states that have set up tax systems for legalized marijuana employ cultivation levies on growers, while all but Alaska charge an excise tax specifically on cannabis sales. Five states also charge the general sales tax, though not the same exact group that has a cultivator tax.
The actual effective tax rates that states charge on marijuana varies wildly, according to Carl Davis of the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, from a high of around 46 percent in Washington to a low of 16 percent in Michigan.