Colorado marijuana sales top $131M, set record in March 2017
The Colorado cannabis industrys unbridled growth hasnt waned in fact, its still setting records.
The states licensed marijuana shops captured nearly $132 million of recreational and medical cannabis sales in March, according to The Cannabists extrapolations of state sales tax data made public Tuesday.
The monthly sales haul of $131.7 million sets a new record for Colorados relatively young legal marijuana industry, besting the previous high of $127.8 million set last September, The Cannabists calculations show. Its the tenth consecutive month that sales have topped $100 million.
Sales tax revenue generated for the state during March was $22.9 million, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Marchs sales totals were 48 percent higher than those tallied in March 2016, according to The Cannabists calculations. The month closes out a quarter in which sales were up nearly 36 percent from the first three months of last year.
In 2016, the year-over-year quarterly growth rate ranged between 29 percent and 39.6 percent.
The Cannabist also found that March 2017s year-over-year percentage growth outpaced much of what was seen on a monthly basis last year. Monthly growth rates from calendar year 2015 to 2016 averaged nearly 34 percent.
It was this continued rate of growth that caught the attention of some analysts and economists contacted by The Cannabist.
Andrew Livingston, director of economics and research for cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg, separately calculated out the year-over-year monthly growth rate for Colorado cannabis sales and saw a trend emerge.
The year-over-year rates of growth have continued at a steady pace, which to me indicates that we have not yet reached the point at which we are starting to cap out the market, he said.
At that point, he added, the growth rates would start to decline.
If the current growth rates keeps up, April 2017 should be another record month, and the summer of 2017 should set new highs, Livingston predicted.
And by the end of the year, that could add up to an industry boasting $1.6 billion in sales, he said.
Were surprised that sales continue to grow so quickly, said Miles Light, an economist with the Marijuana Policy Group, a Denver-based financial, policy, research and consulting firm focused on the marijuana industry. We are not surprised that almost all of the sales growth is in the retail marijuana space.
Adult-use sales, which hit a new monthly high of $93.3 million, accounted for the lions share of the March totals. Medical cannabis transactions totaled $38.4 million.
Light and other economists have previously projected that Colorados marijuana ...
