Colorado marijuana sales — and tax dollars — are still falling. The rise of intoxicating hemp may be to blame.
Marijuana sales peaked in Colorado in the 2020-21 budget year, when the state collected $424 million in taxes. That fell to $248 million last year.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today
Forget the pandemic boom in marijuana sales — Colorado now collects fewer marijuana tax dollars than it did in 2018.
About half the country now has joined Colorado in legalizing recreational marijuana, with a total of 24 states and Washington, D.C., regulating cannabis. The spread of legalization has taken a toll on Colorado’s more established market, with the wholesale price of legal marijuana falling to its lowest recorded level, according to state budget documents.
But a new analysis by Joint Budget Committee staff found that there’s another factor to blame for the decline of Colorado’s marijuana industry: the rise of intoxicating hemp.
In 2018, Congress legalized hemp through the federal Farm Bill, a change that was aimed at allowing its use for things like textiles, not recreational drugs.
Read more from Brian Eason at ColoradoSun.com
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