POLL Results: Would you support marijuana businesses in Milton?

We recently took a poll asking Milton Scene readers if they would support marijuana businesses in Milton in order to help alleviate the town’s tax burden.

Here are the results:

Yes, I would support marijuana businesses in Milton in order to help alleviate some of the town’s tax burden: 67%

No, I would not support marijuana businesses in Milton in order to help alleviate some of the town’s tax burden: 33%

This past April, a Milton resident was arrested for running a multimillion-dollar black market marijuana enterprise on Canton Avenue.

According to the charges, Deana Martin owned and managed Northern Herb, which operated a website offering marijuana (including raw marijuana, pre-rolled cigarettes, and marijuana edibles) for sale. From May 2016 through July 2018, Northern Herb allegedly had total revenue exceeding $14 million, and Martin earned an income of $80,000 per month. It is further alleged that Northern Herb did not withhold or pay taxes on its millions of dollars in marijuana sales. (Source: www.justice.gov).

If Deana had paid taxes to the Town of Milton during this time period, the town would have received $420,000 over about 22 months.

This would work out to about $229,000 per year in taxes to Milton, for one person’s marijuana enterprise. 

An open business with normal hours might expect to make 2-3 times that revenue, easily. While it’s not a panacea for what seems to be ongoing budget issues, it certainly could make a dent in a budget shortfall.

At the October 2017 Special Town Meeting, TMMs voted to ban recreational marijuana retailers and production facilities.

Disclaimer:

Miltonscene.com online polls are not intended to be a scientific sample of local opinion. Instead, they are a way for readers to share their views on the news with the Milton Scene and Milton Neighbors.

Respondents are not randomly selected, but select themselves to vote on a specific question or set of questions. In addition, while Miltonscene.com online polls are designed to allow only one vote per user, technically savvy users may find ways around this limitation. For these reasons, the polls are not presented as scientific surveys or as representative of the opinion of the general population of our readership areas, region or nation.