2014’s Colorado Cannabis Sales Totals Are In!

In 2014, Colorado
successfully sold near $700 million of recreational and medicinal cannabis
combined. The exact dollar amount that was earned was $699,198,805—not a bad
start to recreational cannabis’ first full year of availability!

Many industry insiders believe that these
numbers are only a starting point, and we can expect them to grow exponentially
over the next couple years. Meg Collins, the Director of the Cannabis Business
Alliance, recently told The Cannabist
that she thinks these sales statistics were amazing, especially when taking into
consideration the success that Colorado has had in regulating safe access to
cannabis products. When you also take into consideration that large amounts of
cannabis have always been sold in the state through an illegal black market,
it’s great that the Colorado cannabis industry is finally at a point that the
sale of cannabis can be safely regulated and taxed.

Mason Tvert is a legalization advocate and the
communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. He too looks at these
huge sales as the decline of the black market and a positive change towards
implementation of recreational regulations stating, “There have been hundreds
of millions of dollars in marijuana sales taking place in Colorado for a long
time, and finally they’re taking place in regulated businesses.” Tvert went on
to state, “Marijuana is a less harmful product than alcohol that countless
adults choose to use, and they should be able to purchase it in a store like
they would other legal products. Clearly a lot of them are choosing to do so.”
It comes as a relief that individuals, given the opportunity to consume
cannabis under proper regulation, choose to do so, ultimately staying away from
the black market. 

Colorado state senator, Pat Steadman, reported
to The Cannabist that he is
encouraged by the success of Colorado’s trial and error period in regulating
recreational cannabis. It’s still too early in the game to make too many
assumptions, but Steadman was quick to acknowledge the success they’ve achieved
so far, “Right now we’re still rolling things out, but it just seems to be
rolling out smoother than anyone expected.” Although Steadman seems optimistic
about the future for recreational and medical cannabis in Colorado, he was sure
to highlight, “We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. There are still a lot
of sales that are going on that aren’t in the regulated, legal market, and
that’s part of the reason why the taxes weren’t as big a anticipated [in
2014].” The state government is proposing legislation this year to consider how
they can fully eradicate the illegal black market while providing a better
regulated environment for legal cannabis dispensaries and businesses to thrive.