From Merry Jane:
Although the federal government considers marijuana a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, it has no problem collecting taxes on state-legal weed.
The US government collected $4.7 billion from state-legal weed businesses in 2017, according to a report from Quartz.
To put that $4.7 billion figure into perspective, the highest-valued NBA team of all time, the New York Knicks, is worth slightly less, at $4 billion.
Also hitting the $4 billion mark: the prom industry, digital ink,omega-3 supplements, and the package coating industries are all worth about $4 billion each. The entirety of Canada’s legal weedmarket is also valued at about $4 billion.
Federal law currently classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, a category for deadly substances with no accepted medical use. But that doesn’t exempt marijuana businesses from reporting taxable income to Uncle Sam, regardless of whether the business is state-licensed or underground.
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The US Government Received a $4.7 Billion Payout From Weed Taxes
