Recreational marijuana sales in Michigan exceed $1.6 million in first 8 days

In the first eight days of legal weed sales, $1.6 million of recreational marijuana was sold at the five retail shops open around the state.

And three of those shops either sold out or had limited supplies of cannabis products.

The sales from Dec.1-8 totaled $1,629,007 and brought in $162,900 from the 10% state excise tax and $107,514 from the 6% state sales tax.

The state House Fiscal Agency has estimated that when the recreational market for marijuana is fully established after 2020, annual sales will approach $949 million, bringing in $94.9 million from the 10% excise tax and $57 million from the 6% sales tax.

According to the ballot proposal approved by voters in 2018, the first $20 million from the 10% excise tax, in the first two years of recreational marijuana sales, will go to research on the benefits of marijuana to treat ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The remainder of the excise tax will be split between payments to cities and counties that allow marijuana businesses in their towns, the school aid fund and the transportation fund to improve roads. But the House Fiscal Agency projected that the projected tax totals — $97.5 million in 2020, growing to $163 million in 2023 — are a small fraction of the state’s $60 billion budget. [Read more at Detroit Free Press]