By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic
Dispensaries in Arizona rang up at least $2.9 million in recreational sales in the first 10 days adults 21 and older were allowed to purchase marijuana without a medical card, according to data from the Arizona Department of Revenue.
Arizona voters approved adult use of marijuana in November via Proposition 207, and state health officials gave the first dispensaries the OK to sell to all adults Jan. 22.
Those last 10 days of January registered recreational sales that contributed about $500,000 in new excise taxes to state coffers.
“The initial boom in recreational sales is not a surprise and is just the beginning. Demonstrative first and foremost of the undeniable fact that marijuana prohibition resulted in a lost opportunity to generate badly needed public revenue without burdening people with income or property taxes, which is to say nothing of the lives destroyed and money wasted enforcing stupid laws. The legalization of marijuana in Arizona should help our leaders reexamine the way they govern, help empower entrepreneurship, and allow people to make choices for themselves about what is good or bad for them. Peoples lives, and consequently the economy will be better for it.”
Adam Trenk, Rose Law Group Partner and Director of Marijuana, Hemp and Equine Depts.
