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(AP)

Colorado state officials initially figured recreational marijuana sales would bring in $33.5 million in revenue through the fiscal year, but actual revenue in the first six months was closer to $12 million and that's got lawmakers thinking it may be time to rethink how pot is taxed.

Denver Post staff writer John Ingold wrote about the revenue shortfall last month, reporting that the state's cheaper medical marijuana market played a role in the recreational market. The recreational market, he wrote, largely depended on tourists and others who previously purchased pot on the black market.

Medical marijuana consumers, it turned out, stuck with the medical market, reported Ingold.

The findings could have implications for Oregon, where voters will weigh a legalization initiative in November. Oregon, too, has a robust medical marijuana market as well as a thriving black market one.

Wrote Ingold:

"I think our original assumption about the cannibalization was wrong," Colorado Legislative Council economist Larson Silbaugh said at Tuesday's committee meeting.

The result, suggested David Blake of the Colorado attorney general's office, is that the resilience of the medical-marijuana market "is being driven by avoidance of that tax."

CNN Money's Katie Lobosco did this quick explainer on factors driving the lower-than-expected revenue. The medical marijuana market is one of them, but black market pot and homegrown cannabis also are undercutting the legal market.

Lobosco wrote:

Some are likely procuring it under the table from medical marijuana patients who buy it on the up-and-up and then resell it illegally -- depriving the state of tax revenue.

Plus, any Coloradan over 21 can grow up to six plants for personal use. If they are selling it on the black market, that's even more tax revenue the state's missing out on.

Also worth a read this morning:

The Secret Pot-Growing Operations in America's Cornfields The same tech that's helping farmers with legal crops is a boon to the agricultural underworld. (Kaitlin Stack Whitney, The Atlantic)

Berkeley Pushes a Boundary on Medical Marijuana (Ian Lovett, The New York Times)

-- Noelle Crombie