OKLAHOMA CITY – The State of Oklahoma collected more than $5 million in July from the medical marijuana tax – for the third consecutive month.
The 7% excise tax on MMJ generated $5.23 million in tax receipts last month. Those collections indicated that sales of MMJ products totaled almost $75 million in July and averaged $238.55 for each of the state’s 313,638 licensed MMJ patients.
The 7% MMJ tax, coupled with the 4.5% state sales tax and local sales taxes, produced $12.2 million in July. Tax collections from sales of medical marijuana products have increased in 18 of the last 22 months.
To date, taxes collected on sales of medical marijuana products – including the MMJ excise tax plus state and local sales taxes – have exceeded $124 million.
Paula Ross, public information officer for the state Tax Commission, said all of the 7% tax will be disbursed to a designated fund at the State
Health Department until the annual budget for the regulatory office (the Medical Marijuana Authority) is fulfilled.
Any proceeds in excess of the budgeted amount for running the regulatory office will be apportioned as follows:
• 25% to the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Fund at the Department of Health
• 75% to the state’s General Revenue fund
Terri Watkins, public infor mation officer for the MMJA, said the Authority’s budget last year was approximately $25 million.
However, that will increase in the current fiscal year (July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021) when two new projects come online, she said. One is a quality assurance laboratory that will monitor the 21 MMJ laboratories in this state. The other will be implementation of a “seed to sale” program that will track marijuana from its start as a seedling to its sale to the consumer as a medical marijuana product.