New Tax proposed for Phoenix, AZ dispensaries

Surprising that they would rather add more financial strain onto the consumer then dipping into the millions sitting at the AZDHS from certifications.

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Here is the Facebook event to stay up-to-date on tomorrow:

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That is the part that pisses me off the most. There is almost $50M in the coffers from cards/renewals, just sitting there!

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Call me cynical, but I feel like this move by the mayor is, in a small way, a little bit of Karma. Please allow me to elaborate before I get publicly excoriated (a little vernacular gift for @Hunter) for my position: over the last few years, dispensary owners from small, under-served, or rural areas (i.e. low revenue-generating areas) of our great state have quietly closed up shop and moved to the Phoenix metro area where there is a massive consumer base and a limited number of state issued licenses. Now the large majority of retail dispensaries are in Phoenix. Please tell me why the Nogales, AZ dispensary license hangs on a wall in Phoenix??? I think if the city council moves to impose an additional tax on these multi-million dollar operations, it’s a little taste of their own medicine. Maybe they might consider going back to the communities where their licenses belong.

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They are all able to move anywhere in the state after operating for 3 years. It SUCKS that patients in those areas are without a shop, but it’s written into the AMMA that they can move.

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Fair enough, and I love the ability to maximize the potential of the AMMA legislation; HOWEVER, I believe if a retail dispensary wants to access thousands of consumers in a given municipality, say Phoenix or Tucson, for instance, it’s up to the governing body of that municipality to impose any taxes it sees fit.

The economic repercussions of the Phoenix city council’s actions are yet to be seen. I think there exists a very real possibility that a dispensary might elect to move their operations away from the heavily-taxed municipality. Furthermore, a rural area might offer tax-based incentives to get an operational dispensary back in town. This translates to ancillary benefits for that transcend the patient/dispensary community. It means jobs for small towns.

I hate taxes. This I assure you. The longer my beard becomes, the less I tolerate taxes. In this instance, I feel there is much to be seen as a result of this action.

Have others in out GNET community seen instances of this happening? What have been the long-term results?

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In this instance, two things make me angriest: That $50M sitting there, and taxing medication. They’re finally seeing an opportunity in their state, after we’ve been bastard children for 8 years.

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By the way, we have MPX to thank for catching this vote tomorrow!!! Nobody knew it was going on until a couple days ago.

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I agree wholeheartedly on both points! The surplus fund is shameful when you consider we patients have paid $150 every year for the last decade and the state has just been sitting on our money while we overpay to have access to medicine! It’s elitist and extremely unfair! That money could easily be better utilized to reduce the cost of a patient card!

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