The number of operators plummeted in 2023.
Colorado marijuana sales for 2023 topped $1.4 billion in November after the state’s cannabis companies sold $110.3 million for the month, the state Department of Revenue reported Thursday.
Just one month shy of the state’s 10th anniversary of combined recreational and medical cannabis sales – which launched Jan. 1, 2014, the first in the nation – Colorado’s overall sales reached $15.3 billion. Figures for December 2023 are not yet available.
Cannabis taxes and fees paid to the state in December totaled $19.1 million, the department reported, with a total of $274 million in taxes and fees collected in 2023.
That’s down from $325 million collected in 2022 and $423 million in 2021, a reflection of a major downturn in Colorado’s cannabis market since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of Colorado marijuana growers and manufacturers plummeted in 2023, as brands and wholesalers found it hard to weather the first significant dip in cannabis demand since the market opened for business in 2014.
Still, Colorado cannabis hit a milestone in July last year when the state surpassed $15 billion in all-time marijuana sales.
