Colorado marijuana sales top $106M in November

By Alicia Wallace, The Cannabist Staff

Colorado marijuana shops tallied just over $106 million in sales this past November, putting the industry’s 2016 sales totals just shy of $1.2 billion — with returns from the typically bountiful month of December still to come.

Sales of marijuana and related products translated to $17.7 million in monthly taxes and fees to go toward school construction, drug prevention and other health programs, bringing the year-to-date revenue total for the 2016 calendar to $180.4 million, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue, which released the latest marijuana tax revenue report on Wednesday afternoon.

Through November, sales were up more than 33 percent from the first 11 months of 2015, when Colorado pot shops had reeled in roughly $895 million. November 2016 sales were up about 32 percent from the $80.5 million notched in November 2015 and down nearly 10 percent from the $117.9 million in October 2016.

The numbers for November — consisting of $72.4 million in recreational sales and nearly $34 million in medical transactions — represented the lowest monthly sales totals since May’s $98.6 million. The summer of 2016 was prosperous for the marijuana industry, which set sales records in July, August and September.

Colorado’s marijuana retailers surpassed the $1 billion mark for 2016 in October.

The record-breaking spell likely will go on for only so long, analysts and economists have said. As the industry settles into maturity, the sales and tax patterns are expected to temper amid a continued shift from the black market and a greater draw from new recreational markets. The industry likely will become greater subject to pressures such as pricing and population change, experts have said.