We're going to look at the impact of govt. extortion (fees,taxes, mandates, & regulations) on how much you have to pay for this medicine. When we decided to allow patients to work with their own physicians to get better care with cannabis medicines, we agreed to a 7% total tax on retail sales, and a 0ne-time $100 patient license. Our commercial producers & distributors agreed to a $2500 license on top of the normal assessments that all local businesses are subject to. That's what we thought we were approving, and we said yes! But the businesses providing these safe and therapeutic medicines are now being ordered to pay much more and jump through far more hoops than reason can rationalize.
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At this point the fees are no longer $2500, as the voters intended. We're at $4000 and we still haven't addressed the more cumbersome task of local extortions. A business then starts over at the municipal and county level to apply for
But the grower & processor have to raise the prices far higher than typical market influences would be, because the Federal Govt is now treating each licensed business exactly like the Meth dealer. Sure, you can deduct the cost of goods sold to you, but nothing else!
| All of this is driving a very simple and effective medicine to cost far more than it should. This is causing many disabled patients to have to go without. But if you do find a customer willing to pay your retail prices, the taxes aren't done yet. Remember that 7% we agreed on, in SQ788? Yeah, well the state legislature screwed us over, just like the Oklahoma Tax Commission did. It seems they took advantage of the plain-spoken honest Oklahomans who wrote SQ788. They simply declared that the 7% tax on retail sales, is NOT a retail sales tax. See, they have this other bureaucratic term called an Excise Tax (like the tax we pay on gasoline). As a result, the patients have to pay an additional full state & local sales tax AND the 7% 'excise' tax. This corruption by our state agencies AND legislature means that the 'WAY TOO HIGH' retail price will now be increased by another 16% or so. Many of us voted for SQ788 with the hope of crushing the black market illegal cartels who've been pillaging our economy by not paying their fair share of the tax burden which should be shared equitably. The net result of this govt. greed & dishonesty is that we will now be assured of a perpetual black market in Cannabis which the legislature must take the blame for inducing into business. When my good family doctor prescribes me any other medicine, the govt. has the decency to desist from taxing that essential medicine. I guess 50 years of shaming a marvelous drug with 'Reefer Madness' propaganda, is a great way to expand the govt largess. You'd think that the govt. could at least give us accurate numbers for all the wealth they take away. But this week we found out that the OMMA has been lying to us for months about the economic indicators which venture capitalists rely on to know where & when to wisely invest in this industry. Read more about that fiasco, here. |