Colorado passes $1 billion in marijuana state revenue

PUBLISHED WED, JUN 12 2019 3:00 PM EDT UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

Eric Rosenbaum

Colorado has now generated more than $1 billion in total state revenue from the legal marijuana industry, another milestone for the state that legalized cannabis in 2014.

Colorado already has posted some big numbers: More than $6 billion in total sales of cannabis since the birth of the new industry — over $6.5 billion at the end of May, according to just-released monthly data from the state. And the state’s revenue from adult-use marijuana sales has accelerated.

April and May were the two highest-grossing months in the five-year history of the new industry, with Colorado revenue reaching its highest monthly take ever in April (which includes the 420 holiday), at roughly $24.2 million. The state’s legal marijuana sales revenue doubling from the $500 million mark to $1 billion ($1,017,120,136 exactly) took under two years, while getting to $500 million took close to three and a half years. Since July 2017, Colorado total monthly tax and fee revenue from marijuana sales has never dipped below $20 million. In February 2014, the first month with sales tracking data, total state revenue was $3.5 million.

At CNBC’s recent Net Net event held in Denver on May 1, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said, “It’s going very well. ... It’s creating tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenue for the state, filling up buildings for landlords and reducing crime. ... Although I like to tell my peer governors in other states ‘It’s not going well, don’t do it.’ There is obviously more advantage to us when we are all a little bit more special, and obviously more and more states are moving in this direction.”

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