COLUMBIA — A new ruling by the Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals panel saved Missouri marijuana customers about $3 million a month. The ruling said counties and municipalities couldn’t impose a 3% sales tax on marijuana products at the same time.
More than 90 Missouri counties impose a 3% marijuana tax for people buying cannabis at dispensaries. The new ruling said counties no longer had the authority to impose an additional sales tax on recreational marijuana. Missouri has more than 200 marijuana dispensaries with annual sales of more than $1.4 billion. Missouri sales taxes on marijuana raise about $230 million every year with some of the money funding veterans’ health care, the public defender system, and substance abuse programs. The problem started in October 2023 when dozens of Missouri county leaders put their own sales tax on top of state and city sales taxes. Members of the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association said the new ruling upheld the Missouri Constitution.
Missouri Cannabis Trade Association spokesman Jack Cardetti said, “It’s unfortunate that some of these counties went and tried to collect more than they were constitutional allowed to do.”
Columbia Attorney Dan Viets said lower sales taxes encouraged Missourians to buy marijuana at legal dispensaries rather than from illegal dealers on the streets.
Viets said, “It’s far healthier to purchase and use legal cannabis. The lower the taxes are, the lower the prices are, the more people are likely to patronize those legal dispensaries.”
Boone County commissioners had the foresight to put their marijuana sales tax money into an escrow account. They didn’t plan to spend it until they knew for sure they would get to keep it.
Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick said, “We knew there would challenges to a stack because of the way the constitutional amendment was written. A decision was made very early on within Boone County Government to separate those funds.”
St. Charles county officials challenged this week’s ruling and took it to the Missouri Supreme Court.
A new ruling by the Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals panel saved Missouri marijuana customers about $3 million a month. The ruling said counties and m Read More
