Cocchi proposes excise tax hike on marijuanaDate: 11/18/2016 LUDLOW – Hampden County Sheriff-Elect Nick Cocchi is lobbying for an increase in the excise tax for the sale of recreational marijuana to pay for what he believes will be an increase demand for addiction treatment.
He has contacted Gov. Charlie Baker, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo with his proposal.
Cocchi explained to Reminder Publications that he was not in favor of the legalization of marijuana in the Commonwealth, but it is now the law.
“I wasn’t a proponent, but I have a responsibility to the community and the people to do it right,” Cocchi said.
The legislation passed by the voters attached a 5 percent increase to excise tax to the sale of legal marijuana when it is sold in licensed cannabis shops. Cocchi said he would like to see the increase from the rate of 3.75 percent allocated completely to treatment services.
He noted the other states with legalized recreational marijuana – Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska – all have higher excise taxes on cannabis sales.
Colorado has a 15 percent excise tax on the average market price of retail marijuana.
Washington’s tax is 37 percent. Alaska charges a tax of $50 an ounce, while Oregon’s tax is 17 percent.
Cocchi said the doesn’t want the tax so high that it would encourage people to buy from dealers on the street as opposed to licensed shops.
“There is a happy medium,” he said.
Cocchi sees the increase excise tax as a way to finance additional treatment services. He explained there is already a need for additional services and he anticipates there will be more demand with legal marijuana, which he called a “gateway drug.”
“Intake records at the Hampden County House of Corrections clearly show that a majority of the addicts in our correctional system started their journey on the path to addiction with marijuana. We would not be doing the jobs we are sworn to do, if we didn't anticipate an eventual increase in our addicted population after we legalize the recreational usage of marijuana,” Cocchi said.
If a person is prone to addiction, he added, legal marijuana would be an additional challenge.
Cocchi said he has visited Colorado to see how the impacts of legal cannabis in that state and “it is not a pretty picture as everyone says.”
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg has spoken about an extension to the timetable to implement part of the legislation and Cocchi sees this suggestion as sensible.
“Let’s slow down and get thing right, he said, adding, “by no means have we mastered [the distribution of] medical marijuana.”
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