Editor's Note: While I'm tired of seeing "high" in headlines regarding marijuana news, this is, undoubtedly, good news. Colorado's legal marijuana sales continue to climb. And more revenue means more for the government coffers, which bodes well for the growth of the industry, as other states monitor the financial impact in Colorado and Washington.
New figures from the Colorado Department of Revenue show that recreational marijuana sales continued to climb in August, the most recent month for which data are available. Recreational sales totaled approximately $34.1 million in August, up from $29.3 million the previous month.
Medical marijuana also jumped sharply in August, after several months of flat or declining sales. Medical sales figures were just under the recreational total, at $33.4 million. One goal of creating Colorado's recreational marijuana market is to shift customers away from the medical market.
The numbers suggest that work remains to be done on that front. Part of the challenge is that medical marijuana is taxed at lower rates than recreational marijuana, leading to significant price differences.
