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Colorado sold $202M of marijuana in July but sales continue to slow

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Robert Davis | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Colorado registered more than $202 million in marijuana sales in July, the state Department of Revenue (DOR) said on Friday.

The total represents a month-over-month sales increase of 8%, with the largest increase coming from the recreational side. Colorado sold more than $167 million in recreational marijuana compared to $35 million of medical marijuana in July.

Overall marijuana sales were down more than 10% when compared to July 2020. Last month was also the second consecutive month which saw a year-over-year decline in marijuana sales, according to DOR data.

Even with the dip in sales, Colorado is on pace to sell more marijuana in 2021 than at any point since it became legal in 2014. So far this year, the Centennial State has sold more than $1.3 billion in marijuana, which puts the state on pace to exceed $2.3 billion in sales this year.

Marijuana sales are calculated by combining retail and medical marijuana sold at their respective stores as well as any medical accessories and products that contain marijuana. These totals are reported by each of Colorado’s 64 counties individually.

Denver County accounted for more than 20% of July’s monthly total sales, accumulating more than $44 million in revenue. Arapahoe and Adams counties reported the second and third-highest totals with over $16 million and $13 million in sales, respectively.

Colorado also earned more than $38 million in tax revenue from July’s sales total. This pushes the state’s total tax revenue collected to-date up to $290,533,333 through the first eight months of the year.

The tax total includes the state’s 2.9% sales tax on marijuana sold in stores, a 15% retail marijuana sales tax, and the 15% retail marijuana excise tax on wholesale sales or transfers. Colorado also includes fee revenue comes from marijuana license and application fees in its tax revenue calculation.

Colorado voters will decide on a ballot measure in November that proposes incrementally increasing the retail sales tax to 20% to partially fund a program for out-of-school learning services.