A bill introduced at the state Legislature on Wednesday would eliminate the sales tax on medical cannabis, allowing the recreational market to pick up the tab for the state cannabis division.
The aptly-titled House Bill 420 would eliminate the 4% statewide tax on medical cannabis sales, as well as the 3% local option sales tax on medical purchases offered to and enacted by local governments.
Rep. Mike Hopkins, a Missoula Republican, is sponsoring the bill. He carried the 2021 Legislature's regulatory framework legislation following the successful recreational legalization campaign in 2020.
On Wednesday, February 15, Hopkins told the House Taxation Committee the Legislature had long intended to wind down the tax on medicinal cannabis sales, but the new state program to administer the recreational market needed funding to get off the ground.
The recreational, or adult-use, cannabis market raked in an estimated $48.5 million in tax revenues on about $230 million in sales in its first year, Hopkins said and is able to relieve medical patients on their purchases.
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