Denver hits $500 million in marijuana tax revenue milestone, city data shows

Denver has reached a new milestone in marijuana tax revenue. The city’s data from Monday show that the adult-use cannabis and medical cannabis taxes have now exceeded $500 million.

Colorado is proud to announce that since the legalization of marijuana, adult-use retailers in the state have sold over $15 billion worth of marijuana products. The largest city in the state has released a study that shows that these purchases have generated hundreds and millions in local tax dollars that have been used to fund public programs.

The city reports that since 2010, four years before Colorado opened adult-use marijuana shops, Denver has generated $501,538,144 of cannabis tax revenues, including the money from medical marijuana sales. The city crossed the $500 million threshold in August. This is the latest available month of revenue data.

The dollars are derived from many sources. These include the retail and medical cannabis tax, retail special taxes, affordable housing tax and licensing fees for marijuana businesses. Denver has collected about $33 in cannabis tax revenue so far this year.

These taxes are derived from marijuana purchases worth $5.7 billion in Denver since 2010. As of August, the total cannabis sales for 2023 was just over $300,000,000.

Denver, then, has played a key role in the overall cannabis economy of the state, with more than $2.5 Billion in tax revenue from marijuana sales generated since 2014 recreational sales were launched, funding public programs and services.

Denver city officials report, that 61.7 million dollars of cannabis revenue was used in Denver to support affordable housing. $30 million went to services for the homeless, $27 millions to education, and $10 million to small business investments.

Colorado was the first to begin selling adult-use marijuana after voters approved a legalization measure at the 2012 ballot. The annual sales peaked at $2.2 billion in 2021. Since then, they have declined and are now largely flat. Denver has also experienced a similar trend.

Denver released an independent report earlier this year indicating that the local regulatory framework has reduced the size and scope of the illicit marijuana market. The amount of illegal cannabis processed by law enforcement in 2022 was at a record-low.

In August, the nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff of Colorado (LCS) released an analysis that showed that Colorado had generated more tax revenue than either alcohol or cigarettes in the past fiscal year. $280 million dollars in cannabis taxes went to a number of government programs, including K-12 education and healthcare.

The U.S. Census Bureau has begun tracking state cannabis tax and sales data even though the plant is still federally illegal. A recent Census report reveals that Colorado has consistently had cannabis revenue account for at least 1 percent of state income in the last two years.

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has long been a champion of legalization. He’s also worked to improve the industry and push for federal reform.

The @CO_Revenue recently released a cannabis sales report that showed adult-use and medicinal cannabis sales exceeded $15 billion since 2014. This generated $2.5 billion in taxes. https://t.co/3ilDKCqIew pic.twitter.com/vIdjigkFoY

— Governor Jared Polis October 21, 2020 HTML0

He applauded Joe Biden recently after the health agency of his administration recommended rescheduling cannabis. But he says that this initial step must be followed by more action to tackle cannabis banking, immigration reform, criminal justice reform, and federal enforcement concerns.

After he passed legislation in May to implement new regulations on substances such as psilocybin, ayahuasca and other psychedelics, the governor called for lawmakers to take action to enable him to grant mass pardons to people who have prior convictions for psychedelics.

Polis also signed into law a bill in June that permits online marijuana sales. This reform was implemented in August.

He has also approved legislation that will strengthen marijuana-related protections for working professionals within the state, effectively codifying an Executive Order he issued last Year.