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Recreational Cannabis Goes on Sale in California

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the first-sale-at-4:20 dept.

takyon writes:

California launches legal sale of cannabis for recreational use

California will launch the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana on Monday, as dozens of newly licensed stores catering to adults who enjoy the drug for its psychoactive effects open for business up and down the state.

It becomes the sixth U.S. state, and by far the most populous, venturing beyond legalized medical marijuana to permit the sale of cannabis products of all types to customers at least 21 years old.

Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada were the first to introduce recreational pot sales on a state-regulated, licensed and taxed basis. Massachusetts and Maine are on track to follow suit later this year.

With California and its 39.5 million residents officially joining the pack, more than one-in-five Americans now live in states where recreational marijuana is legal for purchase, even though cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. law.

The marijuana market in California alone, which boasts the world's sixth-largest economy, is valued by most experts at several billion dollars annually and is expected to generate at least a $1 billion a year in tax revenue.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:46AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:46AM (#616598) Journal

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_Use_of_Marijuana_Act [wikipedia.org]

    Revenue paid into the new California Marijuana Tax Fund will allocate 60% of outflows to youth programs, 20% to environmental damage cleanup, and 20% to public safety.

    Those percentages represent leftover revenues after a number of other programs are funded:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/recreational-marijuana-tax-revenue-allocation-2016-11 [businessinsider.com]

    The money generated by California's Proposition 64 gets deposited into a newly created tax fund in the state treasury.

    • $10 million goes to a public university in California for research on legalization.

    • $10 million (increasing annually for five years until it reaches $50 million) will support efforts to help communities disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs, which data shows are typically black and Latino.

    • $3 million gets distributed to the California Highway Patrol for five years to help establish protocols on how officers might identify drivers under the influence of marijuana.

    • $2 million will be spent on medical marijuana research at University of California at San Diego's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.

    • The California bureau that oversees marijuana control and other state bodies will receive funds "for their reasonable costs."

    • Remaining funds will go toward youth drug prevention, education, and treatment; environmental restoration and protection; and state and local law enforcement.

    In even greater detail at this link: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/15/heres-how-california-would-spend-its-expected-1-bi.aspx [fool.com]

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