San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors made history this week with an 8-2 vote to eliminate the city’s local cannabis tax for an unprecedented 10 years, creating a decade of stability for an industry struggling under the weight of California’s overregulation and overtaxation of cannabis.
In doing so, San Francisco has set itself apart from every major city in the state – especially Los Angeles, which imposes a 10% local cannabis tax that has contributed to declining legal sales, widespread business closures, large volumes of unpaid taxes and the continued expansion of the illicit market. Los Angeles is now considering a cannabis tax amnesty program, a clear acknowledgment of how much uncollectible tax its policies have produced.
At a time when California cities tax cannabis much more aggressively than local jurisdictions in other states, San Francisco has chosen a different approach, one grounded in the belief that legal cannabis cannot survive if governments treat it primarily as a revenue source rather than as a critical medical and economic sector for its citizens.
The decision is deeply connected to San Francisco’s long history of leadership in cannabis policy. That leadership first emerged in the 1980s during the HIV and AIDS epidemic, when patients discovered that cannabis provided relief from immense suffering at a time when conventional treatments often failed. Dennis Peron and fellow activists, working through the Castro Buyers Club, transformed these experiences into political momentum. They led the campaign for Measure P in 1991, which made medical cannabis San Francisco’s lowest law enforcement priority and formally recognized its therapeutic value.
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