Signs of maturity: Facts and figures for Oregon’s marijuana market, three years in

Oregon’s marijuana market is reaching maturity, more than three years into the state’s grand experiment.

The once-illegal drug already has brought in more tax money to Oregon than expected. A robust industry has sprouted in Lane County. And marijuana production has led to jobs, hundreds of them in Lane County.

These numbers help put pot’s impact, so far, on Oregon and Lane County into perspective:

$95 million
Amount state collected in pot sales taxes in 2018

In all, Oregon collected $95 million in sales taxes from marijuana sales in fiscal year 2018, said Mazen Malik, the senior economist at the state Legislative Revenue Office, the non-partisan agency that crunches financial data for state lawmakers.

Before recreational pot became legal, Malik estimated that Oregon would bring in about $35 million annually in tax money, initially. He expecting it would take seven or eight years to rise to the $100 million per year level.

“It seems that the first few months started to be on line and then things started accelerating,” he said.

Five million
Pounds of pot harvested in 2018

[Read more at The Register Guard]