Colorado will forever be home to the first legal recreational cannabis purchase in United States history. Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 in 2012, and the first legal adult-use sales in the state began on January 1st, 2014.
According to a statewide poll that was recently conducted by the Colorado Polling Institute, 67 percent of Colorado voters report that “allowing the regulation of marijuana” is a “good thing.”
The results of the Colorado Polling Institute survey are inline with separate survey data released by Public Policy Polling which found that most Colorado voters believe, “Colorado’s regulated marijuana industry has had a positive impact on the state economy.”
This week, the Colorado Department of Revenue released “the Average Market Rates (AMR) for retail marijuana effective July 1, 2024, until Sept. 30, 2024.”
“The AMR is the median market price of each category of unprocessed retail marijuana that is sold or transferred from retail marijuana cultivation facilities to retail marijuana product manufacturing facilities or retail marijuana stores. CDOR’s Office of Research and Analysis, in coordination with the Taxation Division and the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), calculates AMRs quarterly for use in levying the excise tax as required by Colorado statute.” The Department of Revenue stated about the AMR. Below are the prices for multiple categories:
- Bud, $699 a pound
- Trim, $289 a pound
- Bud allocated for extraction, $440 a pound
- Trim allocated for extraction, $30 a pound
- Immature plant, $15 each
- Wet, whole plant, $75 a pound
- Seed, $9 each
“The AMR dataset includes transfers that meet the following criteria: 1) transfers that originated at a retail cultivator, 2) transfers to retail stores or retail infused product manufacturers (retail MIPs), 3) transfers of unprocessed marijuana, 4) transfers between unaffiliated businesses, and 5) transfers with a receiver price greater than a penny. For each item transferred, prices per pound (for bud, trim, bud allocated for extraction, trim allocated for extraction, and wet whole plant) and prices each (for immature plants and seeds) were calculated. The AMR for each category is the median market price of all included transfers in that category.” The Department of Revenue stated.
The United States adult-use cannabis industry has generated over $20 billion in total tax revenue since the first legal recreational cannabis purchase was made in Colorado on January 1st, 2014 according to a report by the Marijuana Policy Project.
“Through the first quarter of 2024, states have reported a combined total of more than $20 billion in tax revenue from legal, adult-use cannabis sales. In 2023 alone, legalization states generated more than $4 billion in cannabis tax revenue from adult-use sales, which is the most revenue generated by cannabis sales in a single year.” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a press release.
79% of people living in the United States lived in a county with at least one regulated cannabis dispensary according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. The Pew Research Center also found the following:
- 74% of people in the U.S. live in a state where recreational or medical cannabis is legal
- There are nearly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S.
- California has the most overall dispensaries (3,659)
- Oklahoma has the most dispensaries per capita (36 dispensaries for every 100,000 residents)
Total legal cannabis sales in the United States are expected to reach $31.4 billion in 2024 according to a recent analysis by Whitney Economics. Additionally, leading cannabis jobs platform Vangst, in conjunction with Whitney Economics, estimates that the legal cannabis industry now supports 440,445 full time-equivalent cannabis jobs in the United States.
Whitney Economics also projects the following legal cannabis sales figures in the United States for the coming years:
- 2024: $31.4 billion (9.1% growth from 2023)
- 2025: $35.2 billion (12.1% growth from 2024)
- 2030: $67.2 billion
- 2035: $87.0 billion
The emerging legal cannabis industry in the United States is projected to add roughly $112 billion to the nation’s economy in 2024 according to an analysis by MJBiz Daily. The projection is part of the company’s 2024 MJBiz Factbook.
“The total U.S. economic impact generated by regulated marijuana sales could top $112.4 billion in 2024, about 12% more than last year,” MJBiz stated in its initial reporting.