Colorado’s medical and recreational marijuana industry almost broke $1 billion in sales last year. As of May 2016, it's already halfway there, Leafly reported.
According to data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Revenue, April 2016 set records for the highest revenue month in industry history. Recreational and medical sales pulled in a total of $117.4 million, in part due to the 4/20 holiday. May sales also ranked among the highest, with $37.7 million from medical and $60.85 million from recreational bringing the 2016 total-to-date to a historic $486 million within the first five months.
The Cannabist estimates that sales will surpass the $1 billion mark by the end of the year.
By comparison, as of June 2015, sales totaled $442 million for the six month period, leading to a total revenue of $996 million for 2015.
In May, the marijuana excise tax raised a total of $4.5 million for public school construction projects, bringing the yearly total to $21.2 million. The total collected from the two sales taxes and the excise tax on marijuana, plus licensing fees, comes to $71.4 million for Colorado so far this year.
Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.
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