Filed Under: Green Taxes, Red Tape
California just dropped a 26% tax hike on an already choking cannabis industry, and it might be the final nail in the coffin. According to MJBizDaily, the new excise tax is part of a broader policy shift that treats cannabis like a luxury sin instead of a cultural economy. Legal operators are calling it a betrayal. And they’re not wrong.
From Humboldt to LA, legacy growers and independent dispensary owners are bracing for impact. Many were already hanging by a thread, crushed under licensing fees, local zoning nightmares, and a state compliance regime built for corporations, not communities. Add a 26% tax on top, and you’ve got a recipe for mass extinction.
“They’re bleeding us dry,” said one Mendocino cultivator quoted in SFGate. “We built this industry, and they’re treating us like criminals.”
Let’s be clear: California didn’t invent cannabis culture, but it damn sure gave it a global stage. From medical marijuana activism in the 90s to the rise of the Emerald Triangle, the state positioned itself as the cultural capital of weed. Now it’s taxing that same culture out of existence. And it’s doing so under the smug pretense of budget recovery.
What’s the logic? That raising taxes will somehow stabilize the industry? In reality, it’s fueling the very thing the state claims to be fighting: the illicit market. While licensed operators buckle, underground growers thrive. No taxes. No inspections. No overhead. Just cash, quality, and a customer base that doesn’t want to pay $80 for an eighth.
The result? A legal market that’s shrinking, not growing. Cannabis sales are down. Retailers are closing. Investors are walking away. The Department of Cannabis Control keeps issuing regulations like it’s solving the problem, but every rule benefits the top of the pyramid while pushing out the foundation.
Worse, the people getting squeezed hardest are the ones who took the most risk. Legacy operators, farmers who went legal to support their families, and cultural pioneers who spent years fighting for legalization. Many of them lost their land, their freedom, and their financial futures just trying to grow medical cannabis before it was cool. Now they’re being erased by spreadsheet logic and political cowardice.
Meanwhile, companies with capital get bailouts. Lobbyists rewrite regulations. State-approved brands get shelf space while authentic ones go bankrupt. It’s the same story we’ve seen in every other industry—gentrify the culture, profit off the carcass.
This isn’t just economic failure. It’s cultural theft.
What California has created is a regulatory environment where only the wealthiest, whitest, most politically connected players can survive. And that’s not just bad optics. It’s a betrayal of everything the legalization movement stood for.
So what happens next? The underground keeps winning. The legal market keeps shrinking. And California politicians will keep pretending they don’t understand why.
Weed wasn’t supposed to become another tool of state exploitation. It was supposed to liberate, not indenture. But Sacramento seems content to wring every last cent from this plant, even if it means destroying the people who made the market possible.
This is what death by tax looks like. And unless something changes fast, California’s cannabis industry won’t just be taxed—it’ll be gone.
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