Legal weed states have lessons to share

In this Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014, photo, Cannabis City clerk John Golby, left, helps customers looking over a display case of marijuana products at the shop in Seattle. A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves with a cautionary tale for Oregon, Alaska or other states that might follow suit: They’re wrestling not with the federal interference many initially feared, but with competition from their own medical marijuana systems or even outright black market sales. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) In this Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014, photo, Cannabis City clerk John Golby, left, helps customers looking over a display case of marijuana products at the shop in Seattle. A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves with a cautionary tale for Oregon, Alaska or other states that might follow suit: They’re wrestling not with the federal interference many initially feared, but with competition from their own medical marijuana systems or even outright black market sales. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

By Associated Press January 2, 2015 3 min read

DENVER (AP) – Don’t worry about a federal lawsuit. But do worry tax rates. Those are among the many lessons Colorado and Washington have to share from the front lines of America’s marijuana experiment.

LESSON ONE: DON’T BE TIMID

Public officials in the pioneering marijuana states were flat-footed when voters made pot legal.

At first waiting for a possible federal lawsuit, then trying to figure out how to monitor and tax a product that had never been fully regulated anywhere in the world, the states spent many months coming up with rules for how the drug should be grown, sold and consumed.

The delays were understandable. But they led to one of the biggest disappointments of the marijuana markets – lower-than-hoped tax collections.