| Photo: Yes-23 |
A small town in western Colorado has become the first in the state to tax medical marijuana. Only thing is, it doesn’t have any marijuana dispensaries.
The voters of Fruita, a town of about 11,000 residents, imposed a 5 percent tax on marijuana sales, reports Jeffrey Wolf of 9 News.
One application is pending for a dispensary in Fruita. City leaders said they wanted to be ready with a tax source in case the dispensary opens and “requires additional police patrols.”
Not exactly an open-arms welcome, but you take what you can get, I suppose. And since the good folks of Fruita are smart enough to see a revenue opportunity when they see one, I’m betting that 5 percent will be adding up real soon when a dispensary opens.
The tax passed by a margin of 1,533 for to 933 against.
Colorado dispensaries already pay a state sales tax of 2.9 percent, but state officials claim they aren’t exactly sure how much of that is marijuana money.