A taxing problem: how to price, tax legal weed to stamp out the black market
TORONTO — For the owner of Uncle Ike’s, one of the biggest marijuana shops in Seattle, the teenagers who come through his legal storefront to score weed are some of the clearest indicators the black market is on the wane.
“Underage kids try to sneak into our store with fake IDs from the local high schools,” says owner Ian Eisenberg. “Because there is no pot being sold at the local high schools anymore.”
Stamping out the illicit market is one of Ottawa’s major goals as the country approaches a July 2018 deadline for the legalization of recreational marijuana — leaving politicians little time to lay out exactly how to sell, price and tax cannabis.
As Washington, which legalized recreational sales in 2014, has learned, pricing and taxation can heavily influence whether the black market blooms or shrivels.