According to data from the Arizona Republic, the state of Arizona has made over $75 million in tax revenue from marijuana sales during the months of January to May. This comes after recreational sales of marijuana became legal for anyone above the age of 21. The Arizona Republic also stated that the state is scheduled to sell around $117- $123 million worth of medical and recreational marijuana each month. These numbers could push Arizona to past $1 billion in marijuana sales in the year of 2021.
According to The Hill, in Colorado’s first year of legalization, they only sold $684 million worth of recreational and medical marijuana in the first year. With these numbers, the state of Arizona is slated to surpass Colorado’s record in marijuana sales.
The federal government has not overlooked the large amount of tax money coming in from legalized marijuana. Democrats in the senate over the last few weeks have introduced bills that legalize marijuana federally. Federalization in turn could open many doors for other states to collect income taxes from the drug.
According to The Hill, many other states are benefiting from the income legalized marijuana provides. California collected more than $1 billion in marijuana taxes in the year 2020, the largest legal marijuana market in the US. Also in 2020, Washington state received $614 million from marijuana taxes.
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