Pot brings $168M to Washington state. How do we spend it?

We followed the money trail from one bag of weed. Last year marijuana sales in Washington state raised $168 million in cannabis excise tax.

This prompted a question to KUOW’s SoundQs from Maggie. She wanted to know how the proceeds from legalized marijuana sales are being utilized by the state. At GreenWorks Cannabis in Lake City, there are a variety of cannabis options: chewy fruit candies, cookies, brownies and even breath sprays. Budtender Shane Robertson recommends four grams of pesticide-free weed from the Methow Valley. This costs $30, including tax. Weed taxes are 37 percent, plus state sales tax of over 9 percent. For that bag of organic weed, Washington gets $7.57 in cannabis taxes. The biggest chunk of that money – almost $4 – goes to the state's Medicaid fund. Just down the street at the Neighborcare clinic in Northgate, the money helps patients like Lucas Alvarez. Alvarez has diabetes, but with Medicaid he says he gets regular checkups and medicine. As a janitor and landscaper, he said he couldn’t afford coverage otherwise. Through a translator, Alvarez said he believes funding Medicaid is good use of marijuana taxes. Katie Verriere is a family nurse practitioner who takes care of Alvarez. She said insurance is vital for low-income and immigrant patients. “Without Medicaid, a lot of our patients would have to forgo care and not get the preventative care and general wellness, as well as sick care that they need,” Verriere said. Cannabis taxes also go to substance abuse prevention and drug education. About $3 million has been spent on public service announcements.