Washington Marijuana Revenues, And Health

Washington state collected a total of $473.9 million in legal marijuana income and license fees in fiscal year 2020, including $4.8 million in cannabis license fees. The data is available in the Liquor and Cannabis Control Board’s FY 2020 Annual Report (p. 19).

The report also shows that the marijuana revenues were $229.4 million more than that of liquor, and that the marijuana tax income to the state for fiscal 2020 of $473.9 million grew by slightly more than $78 million from the prior fiscal year.

Revenues collected by the Liquor and Cannabis Board from legal cannabis taxes, license fees, and penalties are distributed as follow, according to the report:

• General Fund – $137 million
• Basic Health – $213 million
• Local Governments – $15 million
• Washington State Health Care Authority – $48.5 million
• Department of Health – $10.1 million
• Washington State Patrol – $2.3 million
• Other – $3.1 million

RCW 69.50.540 sets the template for allocations of state spending funded through marijuana sales taxes and licensing fees.

Nearly half of all marijuana revenues fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2020 went to the Basic Health Plan Trust Account.

That account is described by the Office of Financial Management as providing “necessary basic health care services to working persons and others who lack coverage, at a cost to these persons that does not create a barrier to the utilization of necessary health care services.”