More than $33 million of recreational cannabis and $32.2 million of medical marijuana was purchased in Colorado this past August, and there’s no sign of slowing. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, there was a 10% bump in sales. “Every day that goes by, or at least every week, we have new recreational marijuana […]
More than $33 million of recreational cannabis and $32.2 million of medical marijuana was purchased in Colorado this past August, and there’s no sign of slowing. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, there was a 10% bump in sales.
“Every day that goes by, or at least every week, we have new recreational marijuana businesses opening in Colorado, and that helps explain the increase in tax revenue. The industry is expanding its reach. Recreational is going to continue getting bigger than medical.” – Mike Elliott, Executive Director of Marijuana Industry Group
With that, since January 1st, 2014, Colorado alone has raked in more than $45.2 million in taxes, licenses and fees from recreational and medical cannabis combined. Elliot says one of the biggest cities in the state will be opening its first recreational shop, pushing recreational ahead of medical marijuana sales even further.
“Within the next month we’ll have the first shops opening in Aurora, which is a huge city. What we’re probably going to see is a huge bump in the recreational sales numbers beginning in another month or two because of Aurora coming on line.”
Last year, Colorado collected about $166 million in cigarette taxes, $40 million in taxes from alcohol sales and nearly $32 million from tobacco products. The state’s highest sources of tax income came from addictive and unhealthy vices in comparison, yet marijuana is poised to be the number one contender in 2014. With those statistics in mind, it’s hard to believe that Aurora parents are not looking forward to new weed shops opening their doors on their stomping grounds.
Parents in the third-largest city in Colorado are set out to pot shame those who are going to purchase from this recreational location. That’s right. Parents will attempt to publicly shame those who think pot is cool. Let’s see what they have to say when those tax dollars hit their kid’s school system.
Header image courtesy of Time
Source: the Cannabist