Colorado marijuana sales: $1 billion in first 10 months of 2016
In the first 10 months of 2016, Colorado marijuana shops reached a significant milestone they had barely missed in all of 2015: $1 billion in legal, regulated cannabis sales.
Recreational and medical cannabis shops in Americas first 420-legal state have sold nearly $1.1 billion of marijuana and related products in 2016, according to the new October data from the states Department of Revenue.
When 2015s year-end marijuana tax data was finally released in February, Cannabist calculations showed $996,184,788 in sales at Colorado marijuana shops that year spurring a leading industry attorney to tell us at the time, I think its ethical to round that up to a billion.
That same lawyer, Vicente Sederberg partner Christian Sederberg, celebrated the billion-dollar news on Monday by also pointing to the Colorado cannabis industrys increasing economic impact and skyrocketing tax revenues for the state as well as numerous cities and counties throughout Colorado.
We think well see $1.3 billion in sales revenue this year, said Sederberg, and so the economic impact of this industry if were using the same multiplier from the Marijuana Policy Groups recent report, which is totally reasonable it suddenly eclipses a $3 billion economic impact for 2016.
Nearly $82.8 million of retail cannabis and more than $35 million of medical pot was peddled at Colorado shops in October 2016; The totals are down from September 2016, when marijuana sales hit an all-time high in Colorado but Octobers sales are cumulatively up year over year by more than 46 percent.
Sederberg and his colleague Andrew Livingston, the law firms director of economics and research, also estimate that 2016s overall tax totals will amount to more than 2014 and 2015 tax totals combined, and thats a conservative estimate, Sederberg added.
Depending on November and Decembers forthcoming pot tax totals, that scenario is possible. Not accounting for licensing fees imposed on cannabis businesses, $63.4 million in marijuana taxes were collected by the state in 2014 along with another $120.6 million in 2015. Since 2016 taxes through October sit ...
