The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON–Here’s some good news for Canadian pot smokers: high taxes will not join the munchies, the pasties, and short-term memory loss as unwelcome side effects of smoking up.
The Canadian government is hinting it wants to keep pot taxes low.
As the feds design tax policy for soon-to-be-legalized marijuana, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said he has one main goal: squeezing out the black market.
He is adamant that maximizing federal revenues is not–and will not be–the priority on pot.
A C.D. Howe report this month found 90 percent of the illegal market would disappear if pot cost $9 per gram, and governments applied only existing sales taxes, producing $675 million a year in federal and provincial revenues.
But the report concluded illegal sales would retain half the market if governments tried squeezing $1 billion in revenue from the sale of marijuana.
