Gross sales of each medical and leisure hashish in Colorado plummeted in June in comparison with the earlier 12 months, the state’s Department of Revenue reported, an alarming decline that trade officers attribute to quite a lot of causes.
Medical marijuana gross sales totaled $19,235,656 in June—down from $34,534,293 in June 2021. Leisure pot gross sales, in the meantime, generated $127,157,358 in June—down from $152,719,813 in June 2021.
The decline in medical hashish gross sales has been particularly regarding to sure members of the trade.
Truman Bradley, government director of the Colorado-based commerce affiliation the Marijuana Trade Group, mentioned that the medical hashish gross sales are “the bottom they’ve been for the reason that legalization of leisure [cannabis]” in 2012, and that he’s “very involved.”
Bradley told local news station The Denver Channel that the drop in gross sales is right down to quite a lot of elements.
“On the medical aspect, some very strict buy limits got here in, , for prescribed drugs. Sufferers can rise up to a one-month provide. However for medical hashish, their each day buy limits for folk who’re immunocompromised or disabled, this can be a actual downside,” Bradley told the station.
The station reports that specialists are “anxious about folks with well being circumstances getting access to the therapy they want,” saying that “sufferers are paying extra in taxes for comparable merchandise at leisure amenities.”
Others imagine that the decline in medical hashish gross sales is just a results of sufferers bypassing the tedious software course of to acquire a prescription in favor of the extra accessible leisure marijuana merchandise.
“We expect it could be simply folks don’t wish to undergo the trouble of getting their medical marijuana card. They’d slightly simply stroll down the road and go to a leisure dispensary,” mentioned Eric Escudero, a spokesman for the town of Denver’s Division of Excise & Licenses and Workplace of Marijuana Coverage, as quoted by the Denver Channel.
“I believe what some individuals are actually questioning is that if there’s an oversaturation of the marijuana market in Denver. We have now plenty of shops, whether or not or not it’s medical or leisure,” Escudero added.
However Denver, Colorado’s largest metropolis and the state capital, additionally “says it’s seen a decline in folks making use of for a medical marijuana license during the last 5 years,” in keeping with the Denver Channel.
It has been the same story in one other western state, Arizona, the place medical hashish gross sales have additionally been dropping.
Citing figures from the Arizona Division of Income, the AZ Mirror reported final month that “gross sales of medical hashish dipped to barely lower than $45 million in Could, their lowest complete since January 2021, when adults have been first allowed to buy marijuana for leisure use.”
The distinction in Arizona, nevertheless, has been the continuing power of the brand new leisure hashish trade.
According to the AZ Mirror, “preliminary estimates from tax collectors peg leisure gross sales at $76.5 million [for the month of May], the fifth time adult-use gross sales surpassed the $70 million mark.”
“Medical hashish gross sales dropped precipitously for the seventh month in a row to barely lower than $45 million in Could, solely the second time previously 12 months medical gross sales dropped under the $50 million mark,” the AZ Mirror reported. “Preliminary numbers for June point out $33.7 million in medical gross sales with leisure gross sales already on tempo to hit one other report, with $66.4 million reported to date.”
Final 12 months was the primary 12 months that leisure hashish gross sales have been authorized within the Grand Canyon State, and medical hashish gross sales have been better all through 2021 than leisure.