Cannabis companies have been operating in Colorado for more than a decade. But it's far from business as usual.
"Gas money, the car payment, the giant refrigerated trucks we have to have because edibles melt in the Colorado sun," said Buck Dutton, marketing vice president for Native Roots Cannabis CO. "None of that can be written off on our taxes."
Dutton says those limitations are a result of federal regulations around marijuana. Paired with a steady decline in marijuana sales since the pandemic, the impacts on the industry are compounded.
"It's not just the big players that are suffering, not just the mom and pop that are suffering," Dutton said. "The entire cannabis industry is suffering. Right now, our profit margins are already razor thin because of the tax rates we have to pay to the federal government."
Like so many in the marijuana industry, they are paying close attention to a recommendation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule marijuana into a category of less dangerous drugs. "If we could reschedule cannabis, we could start treating these businesses a lot more fairly," said Mason Tvert, spokesperson for Colorado Leads.
Read more at cbsnews.com