Cannabusiness

Seattle Sells Out of Legal Weed in Three Days, Source: https://tribkcpq.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/cannabis.jpgSeattle only has one legal pot shop. Out of the 24 state licenses awarded to cannabis retail shops, only one is in its largest city. Washington weed went legal on July 8th, and by the 10th, Seattle’s Cannabis City retail store was completely sold out.

This should surprise absolutely no one. Lawmakers and politicians are far behind the citizenry when it comes to cannabis. Statewide, in only three days, $148,256 in excise tax revenue was generated. Now, I’m sure that some of that number is a bit inflated due to the expected initial boom, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that this rate will maintain. After all, Colorado has not experienced much of a drop off in revenue since their initial opening. Here’s the shocker: weed is safe and people want it. Duh.

Some math: Taking that three-day total, it roughly breaks down to $50,000/day; $350,000/week; $1.8 billion annually. Even if these numbers fall by 50%, that is still an incredible boost to the state’s tax coffers.

As a Seattle resident, I’m proud to be a part of the legal cannabis revolution. I do think that the state liquor board needs to stop being such sticks in the mud about all of this. As it stands, they are the trying so hard to control every aspect of it that they are literally shooting themselves in the foot. The three-day tax revenue came from only 24 licensed shops and is completely independent of the medical cannabis industry in Washington. I hope this helps them see that with more legal weed stores, there is more than enough tax revenue to be made from recreational weed that they will finally, fully back-off the medical industry. The only reason they are trying to disenfranchise MMJ is for more money. I think if only a handful of shops pulled in $50,000/day in revenue, more shops should satiate their avarice, but it remains to be seen. They could also go the other way with it and attempt to take ALL of the marijuana under their purview just to make more money.

I entreat you, Washington liquor board, please do not be greedy assbags.