Retailers serving Colorado’s cannabis industry have managed to hit an all-time record for single-year sales. October’s sales figures surpassed $199.7 million, bulking up 2020 revenue to the amount of $1.8 billion. 

The recent data published by the Colorado Department of Revenue (CDOR) demonstrates higher figures than all of 2019, when sales reached $1.75 billion over a 12-month period. Impressively, the latest sales figures only represent 10 months of 2020 — January through October.

Revenue results for October 2020 constituted $170 million in adult-use sales and approximately $38.8 million in medical cannabis sales. Although sales revenue for Colorado’s cannabis industry sunk 3.2 percent from September 2020, 33 percent growth was noticeable from October 2019. 

Industry analysts claim that Colorado’s ever-growing sales revenue indicates the market’s potential to survive a coronavirus-stimulated recession.

Colorado’s cannabis industry is constantly strengthening

On November 6, 2012, voters passed the Colorado Amendment 64. However, it wasn’t until January 2014 that legalization was effectuated. Tourism has seen a significant boost as a direct effect of recreational cannabis in Colorado, which was the first U.S. state alongside Washington D.C. to legalize the plant for adult-use purposes.

In addition to the two separate medicinal and recreational policies that relate to cannabis use in Colorado, the state has also introduced a third set of rules exercising control over the non-psychoactive variety of the cannabis plant — hemp. 

According to the CDOR, sales to-date since cannabis was legalized in Colorado totaled $9,617,305,618 for the months stretching from January to October. Listed below are the figures for previous years, of which suggest that Colorado’s legal cannabis market is on a consistent incline:

• 2020 – $1,829,603,225  (Jan – Oct) 
• 2019 – $1,747,990,628 
• 2018 – $1,545,691,080 
• 2017 – $1,507,702,219 
• 2016 – $1,307,203,473 
• 2015 – $995,591,255 
• 2014 – $683,523,739

Colorado tax incentives used to expand business operations in Boulder

Another recent news headline pertaining to Colorado’s legal weed industry involved cannabis packaged-goods company Slang Worldwide. On December 14, the company revealed that it would be expanding its production operations across the state municipality of Boulder.

Slang was founded in the year 2017 and currently employs 75 people in its Denver-based office. The company selected Colorado as its preferred destination for expansion shortly after a September vote by the state’s Economic Development Commission that led to the approval of job-growth incentive tax credits to the amount of $584,399; spread over the next eight years.

An estimated 43 new jobs are expected to be created through Slang’s expanded business footprint in Colorado. Those new jobs are set to attract an average annual wage of $75,000, and will range from project management to lab technician roles.