Rhode Island pot sales top $1.6 million in first week

(The Heart Sq.) – Rhode Island’s pot outlets noticed brisk enterprise throughout their first week of operation below a brand new state legislation permitting retail gross sales, in accordance with a state company.

The state’s six licensed hashish dispensaries collectively offered greater than $1.63 million price of marijuana from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7, the Division of Enterprise Regulation stated. About half of these gross sales have been for leisure hashish, or an estimated $786,000. The remaining $845,400 have been gross sales to medical marijuana sufferers, the company stated.

The strong gross sales bode nicely for the state, which can rope in roughly $133,600 in taxes, about $23,500 which can go to cities and cities the place the pot outlets are situated.

By comparability, medical hashish gross sales, that are topic solely to the state’s 7% gross sales tax, will usher in $59,000 for the state throughout that very same interval.

The Rhode Island Workplace of Administration and Price range is projecting $5.9 million in hashish tax income within the present fiscal 12 months, which ends June 30. However state hashish regulators say the revenues will initially be spent virtually fully on administering the brand new program, together with hiring about two dozen new state staff to supervise laws.

The tax income is predicted to extend in coming years, when as much as 33 shops shall be allowed to open statewide, in accordance with the company.

Rhode Island is considered one of 19 states, and the District of Columbia to legalize leisure pot gross sales. One other 37 states, together with Rhode Island, have accepted medical hashish applications.

The state’s legislation, which was accepted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, permits adults age 21 and older to own as much as 10 ounces of pot, and approved regulated cultivation and gross sales. Residents also can have as much as six pot crops of their dwelling.

The legislation permits communities the choice of charging pot outlets excise taxes as much as 20% on retail gross sales. It features a 10% state hashish excise tax, the state’s 7% gross sales tax and a 3% native tax.

Gov. Dan McKee had initially opposed legalization, however later proposed a plan to part in leisure use and gross sales over a interval of years. Lawmakers accepted the laws earlier this 12 months, which McKee signed in Could.

“The fact is that prohibition doesn’t cease hashish use,” Mckee stated when he signed the legalization invoice into legislation. “Since Rhode Islanders can already entry hashish simply throughout the state border or on the illicit market, we expertise all of the challenges with none of the safeguards or assets that our neighboring states have.”