Ohio marijuana dispensaries competing with cheap cannabis prices in Michigan dispensaries are getting help from Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and her allies in Michigan’s legislature.
Last fall, Whitmer signed a budget bill that includes a 24% wholesale tax on marijuana. That whopping new tax went into effect on January 1 and comes on top of Michigan’s 10 percent excise tax at dispensaries and the state’s 6% sales tax.
Aided by relatively low taxes — at least, until now — and limited regulation, Michigan has had low prices in its dispensaries, inspiring many Ohio weed consumers to drive there to feed their habit, even though transporting marijuana across state lines is illegal.
Ohio’s marijuana industry hopes the rise in prices from the big new tax will help persuade more Ohio consumers to buy local, rather than burning gas and time to travel to Michigan.
The new tax is expected to generate $420 million every year to pay for work on Michigan roads, according to a press release from Whitmer’s office.
The new Michigan tax will help make Ohio dispensaries more competitive on price, said Sean Cifranic, a Firelands Scientific vice president who runs the company’s cannabis operation in Huron, which grows marijuana and produces a wide range of products.
“We do anticipate that helps to align the two states a little bit more,” Cifranic said.
Michigan marijuana businesses, meanwhile, are feeling much less mellow about the new tax.
Read more at Tribune Times
