The Taxation of Medical Marihuana: Goods and Services Tax, Harmonized Sales Tax and Provincial Sales Tax (British Columbia)

Alistair G. Campbell

A.     INTRODUCTION   The purpose of this paper is to address the application of the federal Goods and Services Tax (“GST”), Harmonized Sales Tax (“HST”) and British Columbia provincial sales tax (“PST”) to sales of medical marihuana.[2]  By “medical marihuana”, the paper refers to dried marihuana that is sold as a medication to mitigate the symptoms of a disease, disorder or abnormal physical state or its symptoms.  We do not address the taxability of sales of marihuana for recreational uses. The discussion in this paper applies to GST/HST, which applies throughout Canada (at a rate of…