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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In Missouri, getting prepared for the Thanksgiving holiday for some means going to the grocery store and the marijuana dispensary.
So many people in Missouri legally bought marijuana in the last 12 months that the yearly sales tax revenue total tripled the state’s original estimate.
“The next week really is going to be a madhouse around here,” said Mitch Alexander, director of retail at ReLeaf Resources Dispensary.
The ReLeaf dispensary’s door in Grandview is always open for a nonstop parade of customers.
“We decided to go 24 hours and have not closed a single minute since,” Alexander said. “With ‘Green Wednesday,’ it’s a quasi-weed holiday. People are coming to get their marijuana before they deal with the family.”
“You definitely see the out-of-state plates as people coming because of Thanksgiving,” Aloysius LeFever-Vargas, a customer, said. “Definitely think a lot more people coming in just to experience the fact that we’re recreational now.”
Missouri state and local governments estimated $79 million from the marijuana sales tax, but buyers tripled that estimate, paying $241 million in taxes the last 12 months.
“The state was too conservative,” LeFever-Vargas said. “They didn’t anticipate the demand.”
The largest amount of the tax revenue helps pay for healthcare for veterans, substance abuse programs, and the Missouri Public Defender’s Association.
Jack Cardetti with the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association says it’s an astounding figure.
“Missouri has been more effective at removing people sort of from the shadows of the illicit market into the licensed stores than about any other state in the country,” Cardetti said.
He believes people buy in Missouri because of customer service, safety regulations, and locally grown weed.
“A lot of the local communities have embraced having a dispensary or cultivation facility in their community,” Cardetti said.
Alexander gave his take on why the projections were exceeded.
“Our market is very very mature,” he said. “Here, we are just proving them wrong. The growth was very intentional. Rest assured that any product you’re buying in a cannabis dispensary that’s licensed is a legitimate product.”
ReLeaf is celebrating four years in business.
“Missourians are very open about it,” Alexander said. “A lot of our job is to destroy the stigma that was with cannabis before. Every walk of life comes through these doors every single day. It’s a whole lot more readily accepted now that it’s more available and access here. It’s a whole lot easier for people to be comfortable with it.”
Alexander believes the industry will continue to grow, especially as consumers are accounting for taxes they pay.
“I’ve started to plan for it,” LeFever-Vargas said. “So now every time I make a purchase, I multiply everything by 0.2 and expect the tax.”
Since November 2022, when recreational marijuana was legalized, 130,000 Missourians have had their nonviolent criminal convictions expunged.
For a full breakdown of cannabis regulation reports and trends, click here.
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KSHB 41 reporter Megan Abundis covers Kansas City, Missouri, including neighborhoods in the southern part of the city. Share your story idea with Megan.
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