Marijuana Sales Off to Record Start in 2021

Jacqueline Collins

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Colorado marijuana sales got off to a hot start in 2021, according to the state Department of Revenue, with dispensaries cruising to their best January performance since recreational sales began in 2014.

Over $187.6 million worth of marijuana products were sold in the state in January, DOR data documents, a 34.8 percent increase from January 2020, and even a minor bump over the month before — the first time that marijuana sales have increased from December to January since the first year of recreational sales.

Medical and recreational marijuana sales both hit individual high points in January, posting their biggest sales for January since the state began recording the data in 2014, at approximately $35.9 million and $151.7 million, respectively.

Although far from Colorado's highest monthly marijuana sales total (that was $226.4 million in July 2020), this January's sales figures represent a huge jump in the seasonally slow winter market. For reference, this January's dispensary sales would've been the seventh-highest month in 2020, and almost $10.4 million more than any month in 2019. If January remains the worst- or second-worst performing month for dispensary sales — as it has every year before this — 2021 is on track to be another record-setting year for commercial weed.

January's marijuana sales were responsible for just short of $35 million in state tax revenue, according to DOR data. From the start of 2014 to January 2021, medical and recreational marijuana sales have accounted for almost $10.2 billion in total sales, and over $1.6 billion in tax revenue.

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Colorado Department of Revenue