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Oregon Has Collected More Than $40 Million In Pot Taxes

A legislative panel in Washington state will consider reducing the tax on recreational marijuana.
Austin Jenkins
/
Northwest News Network
A legislative panel in Washington state will consider reducing the tax on recreational marijuana.

Marijuana retailers began collecting a 25 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales starting in January. That money is adding up quickly.

According to the latest figures from the state Department of Revenue, Oregon has collected more than $40 million in taxes on recreational pot through the end of September. After administrative costs, the money will be divided among schools, law enforcement and drug treatment programs.

The state tax on recreational pot will soon drop to 17 percent in many places. But local governments are allowed to add their own 3 percent tax on top of that.

Voters in more than 100 cities and counties around Oregon will decide in November whether to do just that.

Copyright 2016 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.