Revenues Rise in Recreational

There was no slowing of the marijuana business in the second year of recreational sales. It boomed.

In 2014, nearly $700 million worth of medical and recreational marijuana was sold in Colorado. In 2015, stores breezed past that mark with two months to spare — with recreational sales for the first time outpacing medical sales.

Statewide revenue from dedicated pot taxes easily topped the money from alcohol taxes.

The number of licensed recreational marijuana stores grew by a third from Dec. 1, 2014, to Nov. 30, and Colorado’s pot industry moved massive amounts of product. In the first six months of 2015, recreational and medical marijuana stores in Colorado sold a combined 56 tons of weed, nearly double what they did in the same period in 2014, according to the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division.

In any given month, Colorado is now home to more than a half-million growing marijuana plants that are destined for the state’s pot shops.