Colorado's First Year of Rec - Ours Should Look Similar Multiply Colorado's numbers by 6 to approximate what we may see starting July 1, 2018 (a little over a year away now, which'll just give CGC enough time to ramp up in a large way) 5 Charts Explaining Colorados First Year of Legal Weed Different strains of marijuana are displayed for sale at Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver, Dec. 27, 2013. Brennan Linsley/AP Legalize it. And they will analyze it. They being the Colorado Department of Revenue, and it being marijuana, of course. Beginning in 2014, recreational sales of marijuana were finally legal in the (Mile) High State. Overall, legalization has worked out pretty well. Crime is down, tax revenues are up, and everyone is happy (well, except for neighboring states grumbling about drug trafficking). Here are five charts showing how the program has fared. And yes, these charts look way cooler under a blacklight. Recreational weed was a big hit Microsoft Word - 2014 MED Annual Report Final Version.docx Woah Colorado Department of Revenue From January to December, cultivation of recreational plants exploded, from around 25,000 registered plants to over 200,000. Over the same time period, the number of recreational weed storefronts grew from 156 to 306. Overall, this added up to $313 million dollars in sales. Combined with medicinal sales, marijuana was a $700 million dollar industry. Medicinal sales only coughed a little Microsoft Word - 2014 MED Annual Report Final Version.docx Wooooah Colorado Department of Revenue Perhaps surprisingly, medicinal weed didnt suffer too badly with this unleashed competition. Except for January, there were an average of 300,000 to 320,000 plants every month. (The January dip can be accounted for either by vendors getting used to the tracking systems, or a one-time allowance to let people sell medicinal plants to recreational users until recreational stocks filled in.) And the total number of dispensaries actually grew, from 493 to 505. The highs could even out Microsoft Word - 2014 MED Annual Report Final Version.docx Colorado Department of Revenue Retail sales are clearly catching up to medicinal sales. But theres still a huge gap in the volume of bud sold in each sector. Medicinal dispensaries sold nearly three times the amount of bud: 109,600 pounds, compared to the nearly 37,000 pounds sold to recreational buyers. But will recreational sales will eclipse prescription-grade point of sales? Probably not. Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, says Price pressures are always going to be a siginificant factor. Medical marijuana is cheaper because it isnt taxed nearly as heavily as recreational weed. At one Denver dispensary that sells both medicinal and recreational buds, an 1/8th of Pre-89 Bubba Kush costs $37. A baggie of the same stuff from the recreational half of the store is over $8 more, at $45. And when getting a medicinal red card only costs $15, the math becomes pretty clear. Also in play, says West, is that people have established relationships with their medical dispensaries. Overall, medicinal sales account for 74 percent of all the weed sold legally in the state. If those numbers are really going to even out, its probably going to take some restructuring of the tax code, to make recreational reefer more competitive with the prescription-grade pot. And thats not out of the question. The combined 2014 tax revenue for all pot was $63 million dollars. Medicinal sales counted for less than a third of that. Eat your weed Microsoft Word - 2014 MED Annual Report Final Version.docx Dude. Colorado Department of Revenue It turns out, people might not want to smoke to get high. At least this seems to be the case for recreational buyers. A number of things could be at play here: Maybe people dont want to smell like smoke, or arent interested in coughing like an alley full of 14-year-olds. Or it could just be that people like candy. For entry-level stoners, buying something that looks like a gummy bear or chocolate bar is a lot less of a psychological barrier than choosing between jars of bud with names like Raskals White Super Chunk and Fort Collins Cough. Quality control Microsoft Word - 2014 MED Annual Report Final Version.docx Colorado Department of Revenue For entry-level stoners, edibles also offer a more consistent high. Thats because the state tests edibles (and also Mary Jane in non-edible forms, such as skin lotions and lip balms). For over 4,000 individual tests, pass rate was over 98 percent for potency (which ensured that an edible contained no more than 100mg of THC per serving). Theres still a lot of data that needs to come. For example, theres no centralized state record of the types of weed strains being sold, their popularity, and price. And then theres the fact that in many of the states local jurisdictions228 out of 321medical and recreational marijuana sales are still illegal. But perhaps the most exciting prospect is measuring Colorados data against forthcoming (we assume) reports from Washington, Alaska, and the District of Columbia. Until then, stay irie.br />