{"id":8059,"date":"2018-02-10T00:26:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T00:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2948036&amp;preview_id=2948036"},"modified":"2018-02-10T00:26:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T00:26:10","slug":"colorado-marijuana-sales-hit-1-5-billion-in-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-sales-hit-1-5-billion-in-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado marijuana sales hit $1.5 billion in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-sales-hit-1-5-billion-in-2017\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Feb 9, 2018, 2:49 pm \u2022 Updated: Feb 9, 2018, 7:10 pm <span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\">Alicia Wallace<\/a><\/span><em>, The Cannabist Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s trailblazing cannabis industry has a new high-water mark: $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s marijuana shops raked in $1.51 billion sales of medical and recreational flower, edibles and concentrate products during 2017, according to Colorado Department of Revenue data released Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Adult-use sales topped $1.09 billion during the record year, with the remaining $416.52 million coming from medical marijuana. Colorado collected upward of $247 million in taxes and fees revenue from marijuana sales, according to state finance data. <\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s marijuana industry may have notched a new high in 2017 \u2014 and a record December in $128.27 million \u2014 but analysts and economists caution that sales may soon plateau.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2018\/02\/09\/colorado-marijuana-sales-southern-border\/98669\/\">Per-capita recreational marijuana sales sky high in Colorado\u2019s southern border communities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Those sales have been increasing at slower rates than in the early stages of recreational marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis sales in the state were up 15.3 percent in 2017. In 2016, sales grew 31 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re no longer growing at 40 percent and 30 percent,\u201d said Paul Seaborn, an assistant professor who taught the first-ever Business of Marijuana course at the University of Denver\u2019s Daniels College of Business. \u201cWe\u2019re still not quite at the peak and should still see 5 (percent) to 10 percent sales growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those growth rates may see some slight bumps if other towns and municipalities opt to allow adult-use cannabis sales, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what we\u2019re starting to see is the leveling off of the market after the illicit market is absorbed,\u201d said Adam Orens, a founding partner of Marijuana Policy Group LLC, a Denver-based economic and policy consulting firm focused on the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n<p>Orens estimated that 90 percent of Colorado\u2019s black market sales have been absorbed into the regulated market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we\u2019re nearing the completion of that absorption,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>As marijuana develops into a more mature industry in Colorado, it\u2019s growth will come slower and become more heavily dependent upon factors such as population growth, he said. <\/p>\n<p>Miles Light, Orens\u2019 colleague at Marijuana Policy Group, takes his projections a step further: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI personally believe that sales will decline in 2018\u201d versus 2017, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado\u2019s industry likely will feel the pinch from other states implementing recreational marijuana programs in addition to continued downward pressure on prices, Light added.<\/p>\n<p>&#013; &#013; <\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-author\">\n<div class=\"authorimage\"><a class=\"url fn n\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/author\/awallace\/\" rel=\"author\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/colorado-marijuana-sales-hit-1-5-billion-in-2017.jpg\" class=\"authormug\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"author-desc\">Alicia Wallace joined The Cannabist in July 2016, covering national marijuana policy and business. In her 14 years as a business news reporter, her coverage has spanned topics such as the economy, natural foods, airlines, biotech, retail,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Shops sold $128.3 million of medical and adult-use cannabis &#8212; flower, edibles and concentrate &#8212; during the month of December, resulting in an annual total of nearly $1.51 billion, a new yearly record for Colorado&#8217;s 4-year-old industry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,6811,77,5577,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[5063,6816,2655,5580,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}