"There' s enough money involved here that the state really should be collecting its share to make sure we can regulate it properly and that the people who need it get it," says Sen. Joseph Perry, a Democrat from Bangor who co-chairs the Legislature's Taxation Committee.
Perry says the sales tax and licensing fees will be used to make sure that there is strong oversight over dispensaries, and to keep medical marijuana from being diverted to recreational users.
"There are lot of people out there that can be truly helped by medical marijuana, and they ought to have access to it," Perry says. "However, if these dispensaries become a front for simply selling pot to whoever wants it, the people who need it are not going to have access because it's not going to last."
Those who campaigned for the dispensaries call such fears overblown, but they are generally supportive of the tax. Jonathan Leavitt of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative says that dispensaries will be selling medical marijuana in large enough volumes that they will be able to absorb the tax.
"If dispensaries are going to play at that level then certainly they need to make sure that they're connected back to the revenue stream that works for the community -- that makes a lot of sense," Leavitt says.
But Leavitt says it's not fair that the sales tax will also be applied to so-called caregivers -- the "little guys" as he refers to them.
Leavitt says there are 30 to 50 people who, under Maine law, have been allowed to grow and sell medical marijuana to a small number of patients who have designated them as "caregivers."
"Caregivers have to make sure the economics of this works for them and they've got a lot of investment in the production of medicine. So if they have to pay out a piece of that to the state, then in order for them to recover the cost necessary to produce medicine, they're going to charge a higher price to the patient," he says.
Leavitt says that some patients will end up paying the higher prices to caregivers, because they want the intimacy of dealing with a smaller operation that may also be geographically closer than a dispensary. The state is allowing up to eight non-profit dispensaries scattered around the state, some of which could be up and running by year's end.
On an annual basis, tax revenue from dispensaries and caregivers together will top $100,000, according to the Maine Revenue Service. Jerry Stanhope, an analyst from the tax agency, explains how they did the math for just the dispensaries.
"Total sales form dispensaries were 500 patients, and the estimate was that they'd be using 60 ounces per year, at estimated cost of $50 per ounce, and it should be total sales of about $1.5 million, and figuring a five percent tax on that would $75,000."
By comparison, caregivers are expected to see only about 200 patients among them.
There was some question as to whether medical marijuana could even be taxed. In Maine, as in other states, medication that requires a prescription is exempt from a sales tax, under a law that experts say goes back decades and was meant to provide a bright line between medicine and other items, such as vitamins and supplements.
Medical marijuana patients do need to get approval from a doctor, but Ed Charbonneau, deputy executive director of the Maine Revenue Service, says that does not amount to a prescription.
"It can't be issued under a prescription because prescriptions are monitored federally," Charbonneau says. "And so since federal law still outlaws the sale of marijuana, a doctor can't write a prescription. A doctor can write a certificate or a certification."
To create even more clarity, legislators added language to the state statute that says medical marijuana is subject to tax. Sen. Perry says increasing the cost of medical marijuana with the tax will discourage resale for illicit use.
But Jonathan Leavitt says that the state would do better preventing diversion by allowing caregivers to sell leftover inventory to the dispensaries. He says he and other activists plan to bring up the inequities they see facing caregivers when the Legislature returns in September.
Source: Maine Public Broadcasting Network
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