California’s cannabis retailers are ready to revolt.
Already taxed to the tune of $166 million in annual state cultivation taxes, news of a 4.5% tax increase coming at the start of 2022 is pushing a group of ganja farmers and weed merchants to consider how they can best protest what they feel amounts to taxation without representation.
With an oftentimes dangerous, widely valued job to do, legal operators within the industry are speaking out about the disadvantages they share by being legally licensed when everyone from illegal grow operators and cannabis cartels to your friendly neighborhood dope peddler doesn’t have to pay a dime in taxes of regulatory fees. One reason the black market for cannabis is estimated to still be twice the size of the legal market.
As it stands, these taxes are extremely high compared with other industries. And don’t come with the same safeguards that many other enterprises share when it comes to unfair competition and guaranteed safety.
“That’s really how it feels right now in cannabis,” Jerred Kiloh, the owner of L.A. dispensary Higher Path and president of United Cannabis Business Association, tells Mercury News. “Everyone is taking the money and no one is doing anything to protect our industry.”