Seeing green: Arizona collects $115 million in marijuana-related taxes

Marijuana sales in the state has Arizona seeing green.

Revenue from taxes on Arizona’s six-month-old adult-use recreational marijuana sales has topped $80 million dollars through the end of July, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue.

Those numbers jump to more than $115 million when including the revenue from the state’s nearly decade-old medical marijuana program.

“The Arizona Department of Revenue’s updated figures on this year’s marijuana tax revenue to-date demonstrates that the decision to legalize adult-use marijuana was the right decision ethically and fiscally,” Samuel Richard, executive director for the Arizona Dispensary Association said in a news release.

Recreational adult-use marijuana was approved by voters as Proposition 207 in November of 2020 and was passed with nearly 60% of the vote.

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Total tax revenue raised through recreational sales is calculated by adding the two taxes levied on marijuana-related purchases: a “transactional privilege tax,” or TPT tax (sales tax) which is set by the state at 5.5% but varies from county to county, and a 16% excise tax (less popularly known as a sin tax).

Since late January, when recreational marijuana sales began, the state received $25,502,239 in TPT tax and $53,377,725 in excise tax. Tax revenue from medical sales in the same period, $36,821,462, make for a total marijuana-related revenue of $115,701,426.

Those tax dollars are tied to over $700 million in taxable sales, both through recreational and medicinal programs, according to AZDHS data.

“The cannabis industry is on-pace to bring $1.5 billion in tax revenue to the state for the year,” Richard said. “Which does not include the additional savings law enforcement and our judicial system have now that they no longer spend their resources prosecuting people for possessing an ounce of marijuana.”