The marijuana industry is booming in Colorado. Legal recreational marijuana sales began in January 2014 in Colorado. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the amount of recreational marijuana sold just about every month. Sure, there has been some months where there has been some slight dips in the numbers. But in the aggregate the numbers keep climbing, resulting in a record month in January 2015. Per the Denver Post:
Colorado pot businesses sold a record amount of marijuana in January, resulting in an excise tax of nearly $2.35 million designated for public schools, state officials said Wednesday. Based on the Colorado Department of Revenue data, around $36.4 million of recreational marijuana was sold this January, compared with about $14.69 million sold the same month last year.
“This is really what we expected and hope to see: a shift in the underground market to a regulated market,” said legalization advocate Mason Tvert. “It’s clearly generating significant revenue for the state.”
Tvert said that because most pot shops didn’t start opening until later in 2014, looking at sales numbers from this year to last might not be the best comparison. From here on out, he said he expects the amount of revenue to continue to grow, fluctuating with the ebb and flow of tourists.
Name one state in America that wouldn’t benefit from an additional $2.35 million dollars for public schools. And that’s just from one month of recreational marijuana sales in Colorado. Now consider all the other benefits of legalized marijuana – more jobs, local economies boosted, tax revenue for other public entities, saved law enforcement resources, etc. I’ll ask the question I always ask, ‘why isn’t every state doing this?’
