With all the hoopla that surrounded California legalizing recreational marijuana on January 1, one might assume that you could buy weed anywhere you wanted in the stage – but, that’s just not the case.
Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana in California, was passed by 57% of voters in 2016 – yet only one in seven cities in the state allow recreational dispensaries, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The newspaper has been collecting data and details on marijuana policies in the state and also found that only one in five cities allow medicinal sales – even though medicinal marijuana has been legal in California for over 20 years.
One interesting note is the taxes being collected from recreational marijuana. While some cities like San Jose ($2.2 million in the first two months of 2018) and Oakland ($2.86 million in the first quarter of 2018) are raking in the dough, not all cities are even adding a local tax on top of the state’s 15 percent tax. This is because Proposition 64 requires governments to get voter approval for how they will tax marijuana.
The analysis is pretty interesting. You can read more about it here.
