ST. LOUIS— The one-year anniversary of the February 3, 2023 start of legal sales of recreational marijuana came and went without much fanfare in Missouri, but the numbers behind sales have told a loud story.
The state reported $1.04 billion in recreational marijuana sales in 2023, according to figures released late last month by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. January’s figures will be out later this month.
December alone saw the state’s highest-selling month, with $106.5 million in recreational sales.
In the year since sales began, dozens of Missouri municipalities have passed sales tax measures authorized under the 2022 Constitutional amendment that legalized the recreational sale. Communities that passed local 3% sales tax measures in April of last year started collecting it in October, with many using the revenue for general fund purposes, while some dedicated it for law enforcement. A state sales tax of 6% is charged to administer the program at the state level.
St. Louis County projects as much as $3 million in marijuana-related sales tax revenue in 2024, but that hinges on the county’s ability to “stack” 3% on top of what incorporated cities and towns are already collecting.
In the lead up to last spring’s municipal elections, state revenue officials said their understanding of the 2022 statewide ballot question that legalized recreational marijuana was that it banned stacking. But that guidance was rescinded later, citing legal ambiguity.
A lawsuit filed last fall by a Florissant marijuana dispensary against St. Louis County and the state’s revenue director asks for clarity. Florissant voters, like St. Louis County, also approved a 3% sales tax on adult-use marijuana.
Missouri Robust Dispensary 3, in Florissant is asking a St. Louis judge to answer the stacking question broadly but also to issue an injunction to bar county revenue officials from collecting sales tax from the company’s dispensary in Florissant.
There have been other municipal hiccups.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other outlets reported that the city of St. Louis missed out on up to $600,000 in sales tax revenue after city officials missed a deadline to file paperwork to begin collecting the tax.
In St. Louis County, leaders there accused Manchester officials of plotting an annexation plan in part to profit off of marijuana sales in a portion of unincorporated St. Louis County along Manchester Road. The voters rejected the proposal.
The 2022 constitutional amendment’s passage also grants municipalities the ability to opt out of allowing recreational sales with voter approval. Des Peres will be the first city in the St. Louis region to address that question in November.