There's nothing like the threat of constant federal raids to nudge you into paying your taxes on time. Very on-time, in fact. Medical marijuana dispensary Berkeley Patients Group has taken to paying its state sales taxes every single week, the East Bay Express reports.
It's actually a pretty clever way to protect themselves. Anyone who's worked in retail knows that most stores make a nightly deposit at the bank, so that they don't have too much cash on-hand if thieves break in. Berkeley Patients Group learned that lesson the hard way, when a gang of robbers called The Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a raid back in 2007. The fed seized $100,000 of the dispensary's cash and wouldn't return it until the town of Berkeley intervened.
So now, the dispensary doles out a weekly check to the state once a week, just to be safe.
These are apparently boom times for doctors in the pot industry, with that dispensary alone raking in $18.5 million a year.
But these are still dangerous times for growers. The federal government continues to bust growers, with a quarter-million bust in the East Bay this week and a $100 million bust near San Diego.
Meanwhile, San Francisco can't stop wringing its hands over a minuscule tax to fund treatment for alcohol -- you know, a substance that actually causes immediate physical harm.
