Industry Colorado Hits Billion Dollar Sales Mark in Nine Months Gage Peake October 13, 2017 Share Twitter Facebook Share Print FILE--In this Friday, Dec. 9, 2014, file photograph, Matt Hart holds up a bud of Lemon Skunk, the most potent strain of marijuana available at the 3D Dispensary in Denver. A bill making its way through the Colorado legislature may allow recreational pot growers to instantly re-classify their product as medicinal grow if there is a change in federal law or enforcement. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

According to data from the Colorado Department of Revenue, the Rocky Mountain state sold over $1 billion dollars in cannabis through the first nine months of 2017.

It took the state 10 months to reach the billion dollar mark in 2016. Sales totals through the first nine months of this year have reached a total of about $1.1 billion—the highest amount of total sales to date in the country.

When comparing the data to last year, through 9 months of sales Leafly found that Colorado totaled $942 million, with the totals in 2017 so far showing there was over a $100 million dollar increase in sales from the same time period, totaling $1,118,207,832.87 in sales.

Through the first nine months of 2017, Colorado has seen a fairly steady increase from the year prior, with the state routinely breaking its total sales record in the past 6 months–first in March, and then in July, when the state totaled more than $136 million in total cannabis sales, when combining adult-use sales and medicinal marijuana sales.

The state initiated a different taxing structure in July 2017, with the special sales tax rate for recreational marijuana sales increasing from 10% to 15%. The new law exempted adult-use cannabis sales from the 2.9% standard state sales tax rate.

Medical marijuana and accessories are still subject to that 2.9% special sales tax rate, however.

Share Twitter Facebook Share Print

Gage Peake Gage Peake is a former staff writer for Leafly, where he specialized in data journalism, sports, and breaking news coverage. He's a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. View Gage Peake's articles