Marijuana Legalization In Alaska Update: Sales At Dispensaries Bring First Full Month Of Tax Revenue

The state of Alaska pulled in just north of $80,000 in its first full month of collecting tax revenue on the recreational use of marijuana, the Alaska Dispatch News reported Wednesday. The news outlet cited an email from Ken Alper, the director of the tax division of Alaska's Department of Revenue.

Under state law requires cultivators to pay taxes. In total, the state's seven cultivators ponied up $81,000 in taxes for some 98 pounds of marijuana bud — and 10 pounds of other parts of the plant — that were sold wholesale. Various plant parts are taxed at different rates.

Fifty percent of the tax revenue goes to the state's general fund while the other half is set aside for programs to reduce the number of repeat criminal offenders.

Alaska legalized the drug in 2015, becoming the third state to legalize recreational use after Washington and Colorado. The first weed stores opened in Alaska in late October and, since taxes are collected the month after sales, December marked the first full month of collection.

Eight states — Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine — and the District of Columbia have passed legislation allowing for the recreational use of marijuana. More than half of U.S. states have passed legislation allowing the medical use of cannabis.

A market research study found there was some $5.86 billion in marijuana sales in the U.S. in 2016. Sales in North America as a whole grew 30 percent from the year prior, according to the Arcview Market Research report obtained by Forbes. Some are hesitant to jump in on the boom because the drug is still illegal on a federal level.

"You will not find another multibillion-dollar market growing at a 25 [percent] compound annual growth rate anywhere in the world that is not already filled with multinational companies and institutional investors," Troy Dayton, CEO of Arcview Market Research, told Forbes. "That's part of what makes the cannabis industry such a unique opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs."