California officials said that a recent auction aimed at recouping more than $14.4 million in unpaid cannabis industry taxes earned just over $2,000, the North Bay Business Journal reports.
The auction was held February 16 in the California Highway Patrol’s parking lot in Los Angeles and officials reported having earned a scant $2,075 by the time the auction wrapped.
The auctioned-off items were seized during law enforcement raids on ten “non-compliant” cannabis companies in southern California. Officials did not name the ten companies from which the products were seized but they noted that only one of the companies had been actually licensed to retail cannabis products.
The auction covered a variety of items including glass bongs, office supplies, and furniture from multiple cannabis retailers including vending machines and a snowcone maker.
It was the first time the state resorted to selling bongs and other personal possessions seized from a tax-delinquent cannabis company but officials had previously auctioned off some commercial property recovered from similar seizures. Funds from the auction will be applied to the companies’ considerable tax debts, the report said.
Licensed cannabis operators in California have a difficult time finding success in the industry between high fees, steep taxes, and rampant competition from the unregulated marketplace. The Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce in California said recently that the taskforce seized more than $310 million worth of illicit cannabis — about 190,000 pounds — during its first operational year.
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