Colorado’s Pot Sales Exceed $1 Billion in First 8 Months of 2017

The post Colorado’s Pot Sales Exceed $1 Billion in First 8 Months of 2017 appeared first on High Times.

Please allow us to engage in some vicarious bragging about the financial benefits of legal marijuana: Colorado has eclipsed the $1 billion mark in marijuana sales in just eight months in 2017—officially earning the title of a bona fide billion-dollar industry.

Feel free to say “wow” a few times, then get on the phone and tell your elected representatives that your state can and should do the same. And don’t take no for an answer.

And mention that Colorado also hit the billion-dollar mark last year in a mere 10 months, raking in a total of $1.3 billion in 2016.

Raking In The Green

This year’s cumulative sales equate to more than $162 million in taxes and fees for Colorado’s coffers, to be used in so many interesting ways—housing, education, health and social programs.

Colorado’s weed retailers logged upward of $1.02 billion in collective medical and recreational sales through August, according to the Cannabist’s calculations of the state’s most recently released tax data.

This means that year-to-date sales are up 21 percent from the first eight months of 2016, when recreational and medical marijuana sales totaled $846.5 million.

The Future For Colorado’s Pot Sales

The pot market is expected to keep on growing, perhaps eventually leveling out, some experts predict.

“Economists and state officials have projected that the annual growth rates for Colorado’s cannabis sales will eventually moderate as the local market matures and other states adopt recreational cannabis measures,” wrote Alicia Wallace for the Cananbist.

Oh yeah, and when you call your Congress person, tell her/him that this is how Colorado’s previous cumulative annual sales have grown since they legalized weed in 2014:

2014: $699,198,805
2015: $996,184,788
2016: $1,313,156,545

Then, quote Bob Dylan: “Money doesn’t talk, it swears.”

The post Colorado’s Pot Sales Exceed $1 Billion in First 8 Months of 2017 appeared first on High Times.