As we attempt to sunset this whole global pandemic—which killed millions, devastated economies, and left countless people with underdiagnosed and untreated mental health issues—thingamajig, we’re left to imagine: What if we’d tried to do all of that without cannabis?
Oregonians spent their downtime partaking, as COVID converted many non-users to cannabis consumers. Thanks to a change in the rules involving dispensaries offering curbside pickups, as well as an explosion in dispensary delivery services, both cannabis consumers and tax revenue from their purchases hit new highs.
All that self-medicating resulted in record-breaking cannabis taxes. In 2019, cannabis sales were $739 million. In 2020, sales hit over one billion for the first time. In 2021, sales grew over 6 percent, to a total of more than $1.2 billion.
Add to that the hundred dollar fee for a required Oregon Marijuana Handlers Permit, of which Oregon had over 61,000 active in 2021, and you’ll see that Oregon cannabis is still big business. One study estimated that Oregon’s regulated cannabis crop had a value of over $795 million, with the second most valuable crop being hay / alfalfa at over $340 million.
The allocation for that robust tax revenue underwent a substantial change with the 2020 passage of Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs and repurposed the state’s cannabis tax revenue for addiction recovery services.
