Arin Goold’s cannabis retail business will likely feel the pain of a tax increase set to take effect next month.
“Just to prevent people from walking out the door and going somewhere else, which no one can afford right now, we’re probably going to have to eat that ourselves,” said Goold, owner of Mama and the Girls, which has stores in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. “That’s just going to have to come out of our profit margin, which is already, for everybody, razor thin.”
The cannabis excise tax included in the 2021 Cannabis Regulation Act, which legalized recreational marijuana use, is set to increase incrementally starting in July. The rate is currently 12% — where it has stood since sales started in 2022 — and increases to 13% on July 1. The increases continue until eventually hitting 18% in 2030.