Tag: legalized marijuana

Michigan Marijuana Industry Rallies Against Tax Hike Proposal That’s Advancing In The Legislature

The proposed new wholesale tax on marijuana products to fund road repairs in the next state budget and years down the road is much too high and would result in job losses for a booming Michigan cannabis industry, advocates and lawmakers said Tuesday as they rallied for a lower tax rate.

At least two Democratic lawmakers who attended the rally—state Reps. Donavan McKinney of Detroit and Mike McFall of Hazel Park—also signaled that they were working behind the scenes to get that rate much lower before a final vote is taken.

At present, both McFall and McKinney said they would vote no on the final budget if the rate remained.

Michigan lawmakers reached a loose framework to fund the government last week, but it included a new 24 percent wholesale tax on products sold at dispensaries across the state. That sent the cannabis industry and their allies into a frenzy as they warned that such a tax would hamstring the industry’s growth and result in fewer jobs.

On Tuesday afternoon, lawmakers were still in the throes of hammering out a final budget plan, with no clear end in sight despite signals that the government would stay open and not shut down on Wednesday when the new fiscal year begins (though by the end of the day lawmakers passed a temporary budget extension through October 8).

Still, the money for the Legislature’s road funding plan had to come from somewhere, whether that was from schools—which advocates rallied against Tuesday—or from the new proposed tax on pot for potholes.

Those working for or on behalf of the cannabis industry gathered for a rally on the Capitol steps in Lansing to send lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who had earlier in the year proposed a more than 30 percent tax, a clear message: Keep off their grass.

“Our industry is not their piggy bank. Our wallets are not their budget overruns,” said Mike DiLaura, CCO and general counsel for House of Dank, one of many cannabis companies operating in Michigan. “It is our time, not just as an industry, but as citizens of this great state, to put our feet down and say, ‘enough is enough.’”

DiLaura continued by saying that the industry has, since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2020, raised nearly $2 billion in taxes for Michigan over the last five years.

“But they say it’s not enough,” DiLaura said. “When will it ever be enough?”

Several other advocates and industry leaders spoke at the rally, all mentioning that even if they lost the battle to either stop the tax hike or reduce it, they would continue the fight in court or seek a full repeal of the law down the pike.

The rally also featured two allies in McKinney and McFall.

Both said they voted against the proposal in House Bill 4951 when it passed the House last week, noting that their communities have greatly benefited from recreational cannabis shops and associated businesses like grow operations.

“Hazel Park was all in on marijuana from the very beginning. As some of you might know, we even gave Tommy Chong the key to the city at one point,” McFall said. “But what a lot of people don’t realize is how this is going to impact local municipalities. They’re talking about cutting revenue sharing, which is the money that goes back from the state. This is also going to impact that.”

McFall said Hazel Park got half a million in tax dollars last year, and that money helped pay for emergency services and other amenities.

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German Government Report Shows Marijuana Legalization Hasn’t Increased Youth Use Or Traffic Accidents

German officials have released a report on the impact of the nation’s marijuana legalization law, finding that fears from opponents about youth use, traffic safety and more have so far proved largely unfounded. However, the illicit market has not meaningfully diminished under the limited legal regulatory model that has been rolled out in the country to date.

The interim report, which was required under the cannabis law enacted last year, assessed a series of health, public safety and economic factors associated with the end of prohibition.

Among the most notable findings in the document published on Monday is the fact that youth marijuana use has continued to decline, even after possession and home cultivation were legalized for adults and social clubs offering access to members opened.

Further, “no clear changes in the previous trend in cannabis consumption among adults could be observed,” the report, conducted on behalf of the federal Ministry of Health, says, according to a translation.

“The percentage increase in adults who have consumed cannabis in the last 12 months, which has been observed since approximately 2011, is likely to continue…without any drastic changes,” it says.

A separate recent study conducted by German federal health officials also found that rates of marijuana use declined among youth after the country legalized adult-use cannabis, contradicting one of the more common prohibitionist arguments against the reform.

Another finding of the new legalization evaluation concerns traffic safety, with researchers determining that there’s been no meaningful change in incidents on the roadways associated with the policy change.

“In the area of ​​road safety, partial legalization has so far shown no significant changes in self-reported driving under the influence of cannabis or in the number of people killed or injured in road traffic,” the report states.

Early data on the impact of legalization on the illicit market indicates that the law has “not yet made a significant contribution to the displacement of the black market intended by the legislature,” the report found.

One reason for the continued presence of the illegal market could be related to how Germany’s legalization law is being rolled out, with a limited number of social clubs that grow cannabis for members to consume—but without a comprehensive commercial industry that could provide wider access to adults. And even if broad retail launches, it may take time to substantially transition consumers to the legal market, which has been the case in Canada and U.S. states that have enacted the reform.

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Michigan Lawmakers Pass Marijuana Tax Increase That’s Projected To Bring In $420 Million In New Revenue Every Year

A plan to raise money for road repairs by increasing marijuana taxes quickly advanced through the Michigan House late Thursday as part of what officials called a larger framework for a state budget deal.

The proposed Comprehensive Road Funding Tax Act would impose a 24 percent tax on the wholesale price of marijuana sold or transferred to a retail shop, beginning in January.

That would generate an estimated $420 million a year, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency. Most of the funding from the proposed Comprehensive Road Funding Tax Act would go into a new Neighborhood Road Fund for local roads and bridges.

The pot tax proposal passed the Republican-led House with bipartisan support in a 78-21 vote just hours after it was unveiled, with opposition from 10 Republicans and 11 Democrats. It now goes to the Democratic-led Senate for further consideration.

A separate bill approved Thursday—and tied to the pot tax proposal—would extend new federal income tax exemptions on tips and overtime pay to state filers for three years. That would benefit qualifying workers but cost the state more than $150 million annually between 2026 and 2028, according to the fiscal agency.

The votes came shortly before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Senate Democratic Leader Winnie Brinks and Republican House Speaker Matt Hall announced a framework agreement to pass the budget before a potential government shutdown next week.

That will include a road funding plan totaling between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion in annual funding, according to Hall, R-Richland Township.

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Marijuana Industry Group Pushes Congress For Tax Relief—And To Apply The Fix Retroactively For Past Payments

A leading marijuana industry association has released a report calling on Congress to treat cannabis businesses like other lawful industries by allowing them to take federal tax deductions—and also to apply that policy retroactively to provide relief for past payments.

The report from the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) and a coalition of stakeholders states that “no industry understands the pain of taxes as acutely as the state-regulated cannabis industry which currently pays draconian tax rates as a result of the unforeseen consequences of” an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E.

That code precludes even state-licensed marijuana businesses from taking federal deductions for their expenses because cannabis remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

“This provision is a punitive poison pill that threatens every business in these state-regulated markets, but poses a particular threat to small businesses that have responded to the will of voters,” the report says. “Picture the medical dispensary serving veterans with an alternative to deadly opioids or providing comfort to cancer patients in your community: those businesses cannot survive without action to repeal §280E and, crucially, retroactive relief.”

NCIA says the costs of the IRS policy for the cannabis sector are “staggering,” with marijuana businesses paying an effective tax rate of more than 70 percent. That rate “is economically prohibitive, unsustainable, and counter-intuitive,” it says.

“In the cruelest of ironies, the failure to include retroactive relief for state-regulated cannabis businesses will fall primarily on two groups: small cannabis businesses located in early legalization states and equity-owned businesses provided state-licensing priority specifically because of injuries suffered as a result of cannabis prohibition.”

Notably, NCIA stressed that tax relief for the marijuana industry should be applied retroactively. Without that stipulation, the association said “taxes will continue to result in the closure and consolidation of many state-regulated small businesses.”

“Beyond having negative economic impacts, inaction will also harm public health by forcing consumers back to the untaxed, untested, and unregulated illicit market,” it said.

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Legalizing Medical Marijuana Is Linked To Reduced Use Of Tobacco And Amphetamines, New International Study Shows

There’s a “strong negative association” between tobacco use and legal medical marijuana sales, according to a new international study—indicating a “strong potential substitution effect” where people choose to use cannabis where it is allowed instead of smoking cigarettes.

The study, based on data from 20 countries, also found that amphetamine use is “negatively associated” with medical cannabis sales, “suggesting substitution dynamics.”

The researchers additionally concluded that a “well-regulated [medical cannabis, or MC] market can generate sustained economic benefits, emphasizing the need for comprehensive legal frameworks that address licensing, production standards, and access pathways,” adding that “removing barriers to access and enhancing consumer education will support the development of a responsible and sustainable market.”

The analysis also showed “a sustained growth trajectory” in medical cannabis sales after legalization, finding that the policy change is “associated with an average annual increase of 26.06 tons of MC sales in legalizing countries.” After excluding the U.S., which the researchers called “a major outlier in market size,” there was “a slightly lower average effect of 20.05,” which “still supports the persistent market expansion.”

The authors, based in Germany and Lebanon, cautioned that “given the ecological nature of the design, these results should be interpreted as population-level associations rather than individual-level causal effect.”

“Nonetheless, they highlight the potential economic relevance of cannabis legalization in expanding regulated markets and reshaping consumer behavior,” the paper says. “The study contributes to debates on legalization, public health, and economic policy by providing empirical evidence on the associations between legal reforms and market dynamics.”

The study comes amid new research indicating that marijuana use is linked to lower alcohol intake and diminished cravings in heavy drinkers, according to a new federally funded scientific paper.

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Michigan Lawmakers Embrace Marijuana Tax Hike Plan Proposed By Governor

Michigan Senate Democrats are reportedly moving toward implementing a major tax hike on marijuana that was previously proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).

While no legislation to effectuate the policy change has been filed yet, the plan is to impose a 32 percent wholesale excise tax on cannabis—which would be in addition to the existing 16 percent in taxes that are placed on marijuana at the retail level.

The governor said in February that the proposal would “close a loophole that exempted the marijuana industry from wholesale tax, which is applied to similar smoking products, like cigarettes, and other tobacco items.” Aligning those tax policies, her office said, could help the state fund plans to “fix the damn roads for generations to come.”

“After voters legalized marijuana, the industry has grown exponentially thanks in part to Michigan’s industry-friendly taxes, the fourth lowest in the nation,” the governor said at the time. “The industry, which recorded billions in sales in 2024, uses Michigan roads to transport marijuana multiple times throughout the process, including to grow operations, testing labs, distribution hubs, and finally retail stores. This will add an additional $470 million to help fix roads across the state.”

It would also effectively double the total tax rate on cannabis in Michigan, which advocates say would unfairly burden businesses and consumers.

“Michigan’s cannabis consumers already pay more than their fair share of taxes. They should not be singled out to bear the costs of ‘fixing the damn roads,’” Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment.

“Michigan’s excise taxes are about 10 times as high on cannabis as they are on alcohol,” she said. “Gov. Whitmer’s proposal would roughly double the tax burden on consumers, many of whom are medical patients who are struggling to make ends meet.”

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Huge legal cannabis farm told to cut smell or risk closure

A massive legal cannabis farm in the Netherlands has been told to reduce the odor coming from its facility or risk closure after more than 2,000 complaints from hundreds of residents, according to a regional Dutch environmental agency.

If the farm fails to sufficiently limit the smell, CanAdelaar – the company that operates the farm – could face fines of up to €3.5 million ($4.1 million) or risk being shut down, local authorities said after a court ruling earlier this week.

The farm is located west of the Netherlands’ second largest city Rotterdam. It opened in 2023 as part of a government scheme permitting several companies to grow cannabis under strict conditions, said DCMR Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors the business on behalf of the municipality of Voorne aan Zee, where the farm is located.

Reports of “odor nuisance” were received immediately after the farm’s opening, DCMR said in a statement first published in December but amended Wednesday.

“By August 2025, DCMR had received approximately 2,000 reports from nearly 300 different residents,” the agency said. Rotterdam’s judiciary court said in a statement Wednesday that more than 2,000 complaints had been filed.

The company has previously promised to implement “odor mitigation measures” to tackle the issue, according to DCMR.

According to DCMR, inspectors observed “odor nuisance” during multiple inspections and concluded that the company was “not always” complying with the appropriate regulations. As a result, Voorne aan Zee municipality imposed customized regulations on the farm to reduce odor, DCMR said.

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Canada’s Experience Provides Evidence Marijuana Legalization Doesn’t Fuel Gun Violence

On Fox News this week, Laura Ingraham and Alex Berenson pushed the narrative that marijuana use is fueling violent crime and mass shootings, with Berenson claiming cannabis is regularly found in autopsies and warning that rescheduling would put “public safety at stake.” It’s a familiar line from prohibition-era talking points — and one that falls apart when you look at Canada.

Canada legalized recreational marijuana for adults 18 and older in October 2018. In the years since, millions of Canadians have consumed marijuana legally, with usage rates climbing steadily. If marijuana truly triggered psychosis and mass violence on the scale Ingraham and Berenson suggest, Canada would have seen a dramatic rise in gun deaths and shootings. That hasn’t happened.

Statistics Canada data shows the homicide rate in 2019 — the first full year after legalization — actually declined slightly from 2018. Gun deaths have fluctuated year-to-year, but there has been no sudden increase linked to cannabis policy, with mass shootings remain exceedingly rare. The country’s worst modern mass shooting, in Nova Scotia in 2020, involved illegal firearms and police have confirmed that it had nothing to do with marijuana. In response, Canada tightened gun laws further, banning more than 1,500 models of assault-style weapons.

Meanwhile, cannabis consumption has grown. Surveys show that adult use climbed from around 22% in 2018 to about 27% in 2021. Emergency room visits related to cannabis rose somewhat, but public health experts attribute this to more people being willing to disclose use, not to a sudden surge in dangerous outcomes.

In short, Canada provides years of data proving that legalizing marijuana does not drive psychosis-fueled gun deaths or mass shootings. Claims to the contrary are rhetoric, not reality.

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Analysis: Marijuana Retailers Not Associated With Increased Prevalence of Motor Vehicle Accidents

The opening of marijuana retailers is not associated with any immediate increases in motor vehicle accidents, according to data published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Yale University researchers assessed motor vehicle crash data for the weeks prior to and after the adoption of adult-use marijuana legalization in Connecticut. They also compared motor vehicle crash data during the same period with that of a control state (Maryland). 

Researchers reported “no significant changes” in the prevalence of either statewide accidents (compared to Maryland) or local (within proximity to dispensaries) accidents.

“Here we show that the introduction of recreational cannabis dispensaries in Connecticut did not lead to a significant rise in MVA [motor vehicle accident] rates statewide or at the local level near cannabis dispensaries,” the study’s authors concluded. “The lack of substantial differences in crash rates within the eight weeks before and after recreational dispensary openings suggests that dispensaries may not be a relevant determinant of traffic safety in the proximity of these outlets.”

The study’s findings are consistent with those of a three-year analysis of motor vehicle crash data from Washington state, which reported “no statistically significant impact of cannabis sales on serious injury/fatal crashes” following retail commercialization. By contrast, assessments from other states evaluating longer-term trends in traffic safety following legalization have yielded mixed results. 

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California’s Small Cannabis Farmers Have Been Left High and Dry

Dan Golden has been growing weed for almost 20 years. As he hand-watered his plants on his 70-acre farm, he maintained a firm stare. He’s long abstained from alcohol—ever since his daughter was born—and his daily routine begins at 6 am. “This is life or death for me. I’ve never done anything else,” said Golden. The property is seated in a narrow valley in Humboldt County, California, a three-hour drive from the nearest store in Garberville, with large rock outcroppings running east to west. Before 2020, he owned the land outright, but four years ago, he was forced to refinance it to pay for the exorbitant fees and permits required to be a compliant legal cannabis farmer.

Cannabis has long been part of counterculture in America, and arguably no place and its peoples have done more to fuel the evolution of the plant and its mythos than Humboldt County. And yet, perversely, no place has been as left behind by legalization.

Through a series of broken promises, legislative missteps, and onerous compliance measures, the small, legacy farmers once on the front lines of normalizing marijuana for decades have been snuffed out. Now their communities are suffering. “Everyone thinks: Growing weed, that must be fun,” Golden said. “They don’t know how hard it is.”

Since 2016, when cannabis was voted legal for adult use by ballot measure, the market has been rife with snafus in California. Promises to protect those that gave rise to the industry fell flat; instead, these farmers have been met with byzantine laws, expensive permit fees, regulations, and taxes that have hampered their ability to stay competitive in open markets. Most attempts to aid craft cultivators have failed or have been denied, and many farmers say the July 1 increase of the California cannabis excise tax—from 15 percent to 19 percent—could be yet another crushing blow. Though Governor Gavin Newsom said he’d sign a freeze of the increased excise tax if it reached his desk, legislators have so far failed to act.

Many of the players have since quit the game altogether. Agricultural real estate prices have tumbled in Humboldt County as local businesses not directly associated with cannabis try to hold on in the shifting economic landscape. Meanwhile, mega-cannabis corporations dominate the market with questionable labor practices and deflated prices meant to eliminate competition. In typical corporate-capture fashion, these companies have pushed out competitors by sheer scale, lowering their prices so no one else can survive, then, once they’re the only ones left standing, they’re able to jack the prices back up.

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