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Colorado Cannabis Sales Top $1 Billion

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Colorado Cannabis SalesIn just eight months Colorado has surpassed $1 billion in legal cannabis sales, outperforming last year’s record setting pace by two months. Combining both recreational and medical cannabis sales, Colorado’s year-to-date sales are up 21 percent from the first eight months of last year, which were a little less than $847 million. Colorado reported $1.3 billion in revenue was generated last year and $996 million in 2015.

Sales in 2017 have equated to more than $162 million in taxes and fees that will be paid out to a variety of state departments and programs. Tax revenue data collected from July and August include the new 15 percent excise tax on cannabis sales. The tax was raised in July, from 10 percent to the maximum 15 percent rate as a result to a law that exempted recreational cannabis purchases from a 2.9 percent standard sales tax, although medicinal purchases are still subject to the tax.

The 15 percent excise tax aims to fund schools in the state. The first $40 million earned will go to grants and anything over that will go directly into the state’s public school fund. The remaining revenue is distributed to various state agencies that fund programs such as youth prevention and public health and safety.

Although the tax revenue data from the Colorado Department of Revenue was released in October, a majority of the sales numbers pulled were from the end of August and also include data through the first two months of the new tax rate.

While the new tax rate makes it harder to compare the data to previous years, the data shows continued growth in Colorado’s cannabis economy even as more states begin to legalize recreational cannabis.

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