Ten community colleges in Arizona have recently received $31 million in funds from recreational cannabis taxes, the Associated Press reports. Arizona’s recreational cannabis law states that one-third of the 16 percent excise tax will be set aside for community colleges every year. Each college may use the funds to support “workforce development, STEM and certain other education programs.” The rest of the tax funds are earmarked for public safety, transportation and criminal justice.

Cochise College received $2 million and according to its President, J.D. Rottweiler, plans to put it toward its first responders academy. “It wouldn’t be done at the level that we’re now able to do because of those dollars coming in,” Rottweiler said. “It really allows us to springboard this initiative and move it quicker at a time when our frontline workers are greatly needed.”

Maricopa Community College is one of the largest in the state, having received $17.2 million. With those funds, it plans to pay for operations at its GateWay Community College, which offers many certificate programs in a variety of fields.

Arizona Western College received $1.7 million and according to spokesperson Mandy Heil, the funds will be allocated to update its facilities, including its “e-gaming, cybersecurity and allied health,” and also plans to restructure an old residence hall as a “living-learning facility.”

The remaining colleges received the following funds: Pima Community College ($3.9 million), Yavapai College ($1.4 million), Central Arizona College ($1.3 million), Mohave Community College ($1.1 million), Eastern Arizona College ($1 million), Coconino Community College ($930,000), Northland Pioneer College ($900,000) and the Gila and Santa Cruz County provisional community college districts ($228,000 and $112,000 respectively).

Collectively, these Arizona colleges received a little over $31 million, which is nearly the same amount of funds ($30 million) that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey had proposed to use in federal funding toward “workforce accelerators” on February 2. “Arizona’s community colleges are an integral part of the engine that drives our economic momentum. And boy, in Arizona do we have momentum,” said Ducey. “Community colleges in Arizona have not only been the secret sauce, but the secret weapon for our transformed economy.” The workforce accelerators will “form a network of job training centers to prepare Arizonans for next generation jobs.”

This is the first full year of legal cannabis sales in Arizona. The ballot initiative was voted on in November 2020 and the program began on January 21, 2021. Overall, Arizona residents spent $1.4 billion on recreational cannabis in 2021, according to the Arizona Department of Revenue, with approximately $650 million in cannabis recreational sales revenue. Arizona’s medical cannabis program has been established for over a decade now, and during 2021, only surpassed recreational sales during every month except two. In November 2021, recreational sales tax just barely managed to surpass medical sales tax, with $61.6 recreational and $61.4 medical. Then in December 2021, Arizona collected $63.8 million in recreational sales, compared to $53.5 million in medical cannabis sales.

Arizona was also recently included in the annual Americans for Safe Access “State of the States Report.” The ASA report revisits progress, or lack thereof, in each state in regards to recreational and medical cannabis programs. No states received an A this year, and only two received a B (Maine) and B minus (Illinois) but a large majority of states received some form of C grade, including Arizona with a C minus. According to the Phoenix New Times, Arizona’s cannabis programs are on the average scale. “Arizona’s C- rating places it in the middle of the pack, but in the top half, with 18 state programs better, 32 worse, and four others the same.” Among its weakest points, according to the ASA, is the state’s program administration. However, it did receive higher marks for “Patient rights and civil protections,” “Consumer Protection and Product Safety,” and “Access to medicine.”

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Cannabis is officially a billion dollar business in the state of Arizona.

Voters in the Grand Canyon State passed a measure at the ballot in 2020 that made recreational pot legal for adults ages 21 and older. Medical cannabis, meanwhile, has been legal in the state since 2010.

That made 2021 the first year with both markets open for business, and the results were lucrative for Arizona.

According to figures released by the state Department of Revenue, medical and recreational cannabis sales combined to generate more than $1.23 billion in revenue last year.

“Rarely does an industry produce over $1.2 billion in revenue in its first year. This number shows that the legalization of cannabis is something Arizonans believe strongly in and the many benefits it contributes to the state’s economy,” said Samuel Richard, the Executive Director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association (ADA), as quoted by azfamily.com.

The Department of Revenue provided a detailed breakdown of the sales data, revealing that recreational adult-use pot brought in $528,001,278 in revenue, while medical cannabis generated $703,803,194.

According to the figures, November brought in $60,299,191 in adult-use sales, making it the highest-grossing month for recreational pot. It was also the only month of the year in which recreational sales topped $60 million. 

April was the top month for medical cannabis, with $72,944,477 generated then. Complete sales figures for December were not provided.

Moreover, the state raked in $196,447,570 in taxes on the combined sales last year, and that does not include sales in December. 

According to the Arizona Department of Revenue, “there is a transaction privilege tax (TPT) rate and an excise tax (16 percent) on the retail sales” of adult use recreational cannabis in the state.

In 2020, 60 percent of Arizona voters approved Proposition 207, a ballot initiative that legalized recreational pot use in the state. (Arizona was one of four states that year where voters approved legalization measures at the ballot, joining Montana, South Dakota and New Jersey in moving to end prohibition.) 

In August, Arizona launched a social equity program for aspiring cannabis dispensary owners as part of Prop 207’s commitment to “promote the ownership and operation of marijuana establishments and marijuana testing facilities by individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws.”

Through the program, the state’s Department of Health Services will award 26 dispensary licenses to applicants who come from communities most adversely affected by anti-drug policies.

“The social equity ownership program is intended to promote the ownership and operation of licensed Marijuana Establishments by individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of previous marijuana laws,” the Department of Health Services explained. “Social equity license holders will be required to comply with all statutes and rules that govern Adult-Use Marijuana Establishment licenses, including obtaining approval to operate before opening their retail location. Additionally, social equity license holders will be required to develop and implement policies to document how the Marijuana Establishment will provide a benefit to one or more communities disproportionately affected by the enforcement of Arizona’s previous marijuana laws.”

But that effort has also faced scrutiny, with a group of female investors filing a lawsuit in November targeting the program. The plaintiffs, a pair of organizations known as the Greater Phoenix Urban League and Acre 41, assert that the rules governing the program are inconsistent with the goals of Prop 207.

Defendants in the suit are the state of Arizona, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, the state Department of Health Services and Don Herrington, the director of the Department of Health Services.

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