Senator Proposes Medical Pot Tax
By Dan Boyd
Journal Capitol Bureau

SANTA FE - Tobacco, alcohol, candy and soft drinks aren't the only products being eyed by New Mexico legislators as possible tax targets.
Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, has introduced a pair of proposals to tax medical marijuana, arguing that cannabis should be treated like any other commercial product.
"We need to get into a point of realism with medical marijuana as a mainstream item," Sapien said Wednesday. "These bills are not about legalization of marijuana in its totality. It's all about the revenue side."
Sapien's pot proposals call for gross receipts taxes to be levied on the sale of medical marijuana and a 25 percent excise tax to be enacted on licensed marijuana distributors.
The state has five licensed nonprofit medical marijuana distributors and has a number of other applications pending, according to the state Department of Health.
The department has also authorized 1,008 patients to buy marijuana under the program. Also, 307 patients are licensed to grow their own medical marijuana plants, said DOH spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer.
However, New Mexico's medical marijuana program pales in comparison to the pot industries of other states, such as California. In California, the state's sales tax is applied to medical marijuana sales, and Sapien said he modeled his proposal partly after the approach in that and other states.
He said New Mexico's budget crisis requires lawmakers to look at all possible options to increase state revenue levels.
Though an analysis of how much Sapien's medical marijuana taxes would generate hasn't been completed, Sapien said he thinks the figure would be somewhere between $5 million and $20 million annually.
The state's medical marijuana law, passed in 2007 and dubbed the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, authorizes the Department of Health to oversee production and distribution of medical pot. Patients who are approved by department physicians are allowed to possess up to 6 ounces of marijuana at a time.
JohnMonad Reviewed by JohnMonad on . NM Senator Proposes Medical Pot Tax Senator Proposes Medical Pot Tax By Dan Boyd Journal Capitol Bureau SANTA FE - Tobacco, alcohol, candy and soft drinks aren't the only products being eyed by New Mexico legislators as possible tax targets. Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, has introduced a pair of proposals to tax medical marijuana, arguing that cannabis should be treated like any other commercial product. "We need to get into a point of realism with medical marijuana as a mainstream item," Sapien said Rating: 5