Illinois has collected more than $424 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales in 2021, and Michigan collected about $246.6 million. Wisconsin still bans the drug in most forms, but the legislature continues to flirt with legalizing medical marijuana. In the two years since launching its recreational marijuana program, Illinois has received more than half a billion dollars in tax revenue, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. Over $100 million of that will finance programs aimed at investing in communities hardest hit by the drug war, with a large chunk going to fund grants for minority communities disproportionately impacted by gun injuries, child poverty, unemployment, and incarceration, the state says. About $100 million was deposited into Illinois’ general fund. Funds from cannabis revenue will also go to local governments, a marijuana regulation fund, facilitating the process of expunging criminal marijuana charges, administrative costs, a public health campaign, and research on the effects of legalization. Recreational marijuana tax revenue is a “found money” resource, where one previously didn’t exist, by Douglas Berman, a law professor who is the director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State University.
420 Intel – Marijuana Industry News, 01/31/2022 19:00:00