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Colorado weed sales top $100mn for 12th consecutive month Colorado weed sales top $100mn for 12th consecutive month
(about 4 hours later)
Legal marijuana is big business in Colorado. May marked the 12th consecutive month weed sales exceeded $100 million with tens of millions in tax revenue going to fix many of the state's crumbling schools. Legal marijuana is big business in Colorado. May marked the 12th consecutive month weed sales exceeded $100 million.
The total haul from marijuana sales over the last 12 months for the Centennial State now stands at $1.4 billion, bringing in almost $223 million in tax revenue.
Sales for the first five months of 2017 alone were roughly $620 million, generating $96 million in tax, which is an increase of around 27 per cent on the same period last year, according to figures from Colorado’s Department of Revenue.
Those figures combine both recreational sales and sales for medicinal purposes, though the former has consistently generated two-thirds of the income. Colorado outlet The Cannabist has calculated that the state sold $127 million worth of marijuana products in May 2017 alone, the 12 month in a row sales have topped the $100 million mark.
Bethany Gomez, director of cannabis market research firm Brightfield Group, told the ‘Cannabist' that he believes the $100 million monthly sales total is “the new norm” for Colorado's weed industry. The total haul from marijuana sales over the last 12 months for the Centennial State now stands at $1.4 billion, bringing in almost $223 million in marijuana taxes, licenses and fees, according to the data published on the Colorado’s Department of Revenue website.
It seems this ‘new norm’ is good for the state's crumbling school system, with tens of millions of dollars going to fix schools in particularly bad shape. One of the offshoots of this relatively new revenue stream is the state’s public school system, which, as the Revenue department notes, is allocated $40 million each year. This sum is “transferred to the public school capital construction assistance fund and any amount remaining shall be transferred to the public school fund.”
Each year, Colorado allocates $40 million of tax collected directly from the sale of marijuana to a program called Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST). The money goes to either building new schools or improving those in states of disrepair, according to The Denver Post.
While some may disagree with marijuana legalization, so far no-one has refused the cash. Legal marijuana is fast becoming an essential part of the economy for many US states, and while Colorado may be reaping the benefits, other states have had some unforeseen issues to deal with.
“So far, we’ve not heard from any school districts who say, ‘No, we are not going to use that money’,” Colorado Department of Education official Jay Hoskinson told the Denver Post. On July 1, Nevada opened the market for recreational weed use and sales boomed across the 47 state sanctioned retailers. By July 5, however, there weren’t enough licensed marijuana distributors, prompting the Nevada Tax Commission to pass a new regulation addressing the shortage on Thursday.
School district official Hayley Whitehead echoed these sentiments. “I don’t care where the money comes from. If we get a new school, I’m for it,” Whitehead said. “I see the invoices and see what we need for repairs, so I have a pretty good idea of the situation here.” The commission had previously issued a ‘statement of emergency’ to get the weed supply flowing and boost tax revenue from the herb.
Additional funds from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund are largely allocated to areas such as healthcare, education, drug treatment and prevention and local government. “Without the retail sale of marijuana, the State will not realize the revenue on which the State budget relies,” the statement reads.
The emergency legislation was also seen as a method to ensure that marijuana users don’t return to buying their products on the black market, resulting in job losses for those gainfully employed in the legal weed retail sector.
“These businesses have recently hired and trained thousands of additional employees to meet the increased demand of adult-use. Unless the issue with distributor licensing is resolved quickly the inability to deliver product to the retail stores will result in many of these employees losing their jobs,” the commission stated.