Within the United States, the sales of cannabis are expected to hike by 45% in 2018. The increase in sales of cannabis is due to California’s initiative to legalize recreational cannabis.

The critical point in the bill’s success would be taxation of recreational cannabis. With the proposal already on the table of the legislature, here are some facts about Canada’s marijuana tax.

High Tax to Be Paid on Alcohol: One of the unknown facts about this proposal is that the cost of recreational cannabis is much lower when compared to the price of alcohol. The government would impose $0.78 per gram tax on marijuana and 10% tax on expensive marijuana. In short, Canadians would pay 50% tax on beer, 65% tax on wine, and 80% on spirits.

Lower the Tax Rate: One of the main reasons why the tax rate on marijuana is lower when compared to that of alcohol is that the Government of Canada wants to eradicate the black market and legalize the channels for marijuana consumers. If the taxation on marijuana is lower, then people would definitely purchase through legal channels, and also the black market would definitely try to compete with the legal cannabis pricing.

Dan Kelly, Canadian Federation member said that the problem with taxation is that if the tax levels are not done right, it increases the activities of the underground economy.

Not All Cannabis Are taxed: Most of the marijuana products are taxed, while some are exempted from this list. Cannabis oil with low THC content is usually exempted from paying taxes. Also, medicines, which are derived from cannabis, are not taxed. This news would soothe the medical patients to some extent.

Marijuana Tax Revenue Helps Combat Opioid Issue and Helps for Educational Purposes: At the provincial level, the collected tax would be used for enforcement, which would be useful for the federal government in a different manner. The cannabis revenue funds the Canadian government and helps fight against opioid crisis. It is expected that the Canada government would collect as much revenue as it can from cannabis tax collection.

No Clue on Tax Generation: One of the interesting facts is that the Canadian government has no clue on how much tax would be generated through the sales of recreational cannabis.

Manitoba’s finance minister is concerned about the fact that if the revenue generation from the marijuana industry is unknown, then the cost of regulating this industry is also unknown.

These are few of the lesser known facts about the proposed cannabis tax.