At first reading of NJ's #cannabis bill draft, not only does it only apply the sales tax meaning it raises a paltry amount of funds, the vast majority of those funds goes to * * police departments!

You can't make this up. This is the height of dark comedy. #NJpol

News story with link to the bill language: https://www.nj.com/marijuana/2020/11/top-lawmaker-introduces-bill-to-launch-weed-industry-days-after-vote-to-legalize-passes-in-nj.html?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

And then the rest goes to the general fund because of course it does...

This bill does NOTHING for racial & reparative justice & is a slap in the face to all the communities harmed by the drug war that deserve real support & investment to address the wounds of prohibition.

This all completely stems from lawmakers continuing to insist against a sensible tax structure that would ensure a healthy market while raising the resources to enable much needed community investments. To only apply the sales tax at 6.625% (& a max 2% local tax) is nonsensical.

Other states generally apply tax rates of about 20% total all the way up to about 40%. In fact, one of the lessons we've learned from other states is to avoid taxing cannabis by price point at the point of sale & instead do an excise tax by weight during the production process.

An excise tax on weight would prevent volatility in tax revenue as the price of cannabis fluctuated, plus it wouldn't be a direct tax on the end user at the point of sale. You'd do it between the grower & processer or processer & seller. This bill doesn't wanna tax dispensaries.

So, ultimately, this bill says lawmakers would rather avoid taxing dispensaries (many of which will be headed by already very wealthy cannabis corps) than deliver justice for communities. The reparations they insisted to care about all along are just another bargaining chip.

Again, it's not like implementing an excise tax would be some abnormal thing to do. That's the industry norm. But this bill insists on making things difficult for gobsmacking reasons.

Bottom line: that $300 million tax revenue projection? We wouldn't even come close.

When it comes to this bill, #BlackLivesMatter is a punchline.

Here's a thread I did when the ballot measure passed explaining what needed to happen to ensure equity & justice takes place. https://twitter.com/Brandon_McKoy/status/1323819439008206848?s=19

Muting this thread but if you wanna know how to help, follow @ACLUNJ @NJU4MR and @SandSJ_NJ they'll be organizing public response. Also follow @NJPolicy as we're constantly keeping track of critical issues, like this, that affect all New Jerseyans.