Denver has achieved a brand new marijuana milestone, with adult-use and medical hashish tax income now exceeding $500 million since 2010, metropolis knowledge launched on Monday exhibits.
As Colorado touts the truth that adult-use retailers have now offered greater than $15 billion in marijuana merchandise since legalization, the state’s largest metropolis has launched a report that exhibits how these purchases regionally have translated into a whole lot of hundreds of thousands in tax {dollars} to assist public packages and providers.
Since 2010—4 years earlier than adult-use retailers opened in Colorado—Denver has yielded $501,538,144 in hashish tax income, together with cash generated from medical marijuana gross sales, the town is reporting. It crossed the half-billion-dollar threshold in August, the most recent month for which income knowledge is accessible.
The tax dollars come from a wide range of sources, together with the retail and medical hashish gross sales tax, retail particular tax, reasonably priced housing tax, state share-back and marijuana enterprise licensing charges. Up to now this yr alone, Denver has taken in about $33 million in hashish tax income.
These taxes come from about $5.7 billion value of marijuana sales in Denver since 2010. The entire for 2023 is simply over $300 million in hashish purchases as of August.
Accordingly, Denver has been a significant driver of the state’s total hashish economic system, which has seen greater than $2.5 billion in marijuana tax income generated since leisure gross sales launched in 2014, supporting public packages and providers.
In Denver, metropolis officers report that $61.7 million of hashish income has been used to assist reasonably priced housing, $30 million has been allotted to homelessness providers, $27 million has gone to training, $10 million has been put into small enterprise funding and $4 million has been used for opioid intervention, for instance.
Colorado was the primary state to launch adult-use marijuana gross sales following voters’ approval of a legalization initiative on the poll in 2012. Annual gross sales peaked in 2021, after they reached about $2.2 billion, however they’ve since declined and largely leveled out up to now two years. That total development has been per Denver’s expertise as properly.
Earlier this yr, Denver individually launched a report indicating that its native regulatory framework for marijuana has successfully diminished the scale of the illicit market, with legislation enforcement processing a document low quantity of unlawful hashish in 2022.
In the meantime, an evaluation from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Council Workers (LCS) that was launched in August additionally confirmed that Colorado generated extra tax income from marijuana than alcohol or cigarettes over the last fiscal yr, with $280 million in hashish tax {dollars} going towards a wide range of authorities packages and providers like Ok–12 training and well being care.
The U.S. Census Bureau has began retaining tabs on state hashish gross sales and tax income knowledge, even because the plant continues to be federally prohibited. And a latest Census report exhibits that Colorado is one among 5 states which have persistently seen hashish income make up not less than one % of all state earnings over the previous two years.
For his half, Gov. Jared Polis (D) has been a longstanding champion of legalization, and he’s labored to construct on the prevailing trade whereas additionally pushing for federal reform.
The @CO_Revenue (DOR) not too long ago launched a month-to-month hashish gross sales report displaying that adult-use and medical hashish gross sales surpassed $15 billion since 2014, producing $2.5 billion in tax income. https://t.co/3ilDKCqIew pic.twitter.com/vIdjigkFoY
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) October 21, 2023
He not too long ago applauded President Joe Biden after his administration’s high well being company really helpful rescheduling marijuana—however he says the preliminary transfer should be adopted with extra motion to deal with hashish banking, immigration, felony justice reform and federal enforcement issues.
The governor has additionally referred to as on lawmakers to take steps to permit him to problem mass pardons for folks with prior psychedelics convictions after he signed laws to implement laws for substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca in Could.
Polis additionally signed a invoice into legislation in June that enables on-line marijuana gross sales. That reform went into impact in August.
He’s additional authorized laws that can bolster marijuana-related protections for working professionals within the state—successfully codifying an govt order he issued final yr.
Picture courtesy of Philip Steffan.