By David Downs on February 10, 2016

We bet you’re re-thinking your career choices now.

Colorado’s legal cannabis sellers did nearly one billion dollars in revenue in 2015, according to the latest data released by state officials.

Colorado’s Department of Revenue stated Tuesday that licensed pot shops in the Rocky Mountain State sold $996,184,788 worth of pot last year. That’s a cool billion dollars diverted away from black market gangs, cartels, and drug dealers, and into the hands of tax-paying, licensed American citizens.

That economic activity generated $135 million in taxes and fees in 2015, of which more than $35 million is earmarked for Colorado’s underfunded school system.

Monthly sales hit all-time highs in November of $62.2 million recreational and $39 million medical.

Colorado legalized pot in 2012 and sales to adults aged 21 and over began on Jan. 1, 2014. That year, sales totaled $669 million. Colorado has three taxes on recreational pot: the state’s standard 2.9 percent sales tax, a 10 percent special pot sales tax, and a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale transfers.

Colorado’s pot economy would be a drop in the bucket compared to California, researchers estimate. All other things being equal, California is 7.6 times more populous and could sell around $8 billion per year in legal weed.

California state finance officials have already estimated the Golden State’s taxes on legal weed alone would total $1 billion, if the leading initiative was implemented.

On a national level, legal cannabis sales totaled $5.45 billion in 2015, researchers estimate. Major dispensaries in the Bay Area have reported earning tens of millions of dollars per year in revenue.

Mason Tvert, the Denver-based director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project stated that legalization has begun to bleed the black market in Colorado.

“There are hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana sales taking place in every state. Colorado is one of the few where those sales are being conducted by licensed, taxpaying businesses.”

“Just six years ago, Colorado received zero dollars in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana in the state. Now it’s raising more than $100 million annually with tens of millions of dollars directed toward public school improvements.

“The additional tax revenue far exceeds the cost of regulating the system,” Tvert said. “Regulating and taxing marijuana has been incredibly successful in Colorado, and it represents a model for other states to follow. These numbers should put to rest the claims we keep hearing from opponents that marijuana tax revenue has fallen short of expectations in Colorado.”

 

http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2016/02/10/colorado-pot-sales-hit-1-billion-per-year/