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Retail marijuana sales declining in Colorado

Colorado’s marijuana industry says it is seeing a “troubling trend” as retail sales decline for the second month in a row and medical cannabis sales dip to their lowest level on record.

The Colorado Department of Revenue keeps a monthly analysis of medical, recreational and total marijuana sales dating back to 2014, when recreational marijuana was legalized.

Total sales saw a 13% decrease in February 2022 compared to February 2021. That accounts for about $22 million in lost revenue.

“Having marijuana, as much as it is a need for health and well being, that’s one of the parts where people will spend less money because they’re having to spend more on gas, they’re having to spend more because of inflation,” PJ Rinker, vice president of The Joint dispensary in Denver said.

According to Rinker, The Joint, which sells recreational marijuana products, has seen a steady decline in sales for about two years. He attributes part of that to the fact that more states have legalized marijuana recently.

“We don’t have the tourist market that we had before,” he said. “Colorado was a destination place, so people travelled from all over the country to come and experience Colorado and to have a dispensary.” [Read more at KDVR]

This Post Has 2 Comments
  1. I have no specific data to contradict some of the suggestions or conclusions the article points to, but there are some other dynamics besides inflation and other consumer economic challenges probably going on. The price of wholesale cannabis has fallen; so, gross sales for the same amount of retail product may be less, to the degree that the stores are passing their wholesale savings on to their customers. Are patients really not able to access the medicine they need? Two grams a day of concentrated product seems like plenty, though it may make shopping more frequently necessary. Also, it is common for medical patents to let their status lapse and simply buy the same products in the recreational market. Probably, those who were buying medical to resell tax free products to others, otherwise known as drug dealing, necessarily could not continue with this business at the levels they could before.

  2. We are seeing about a 20-30% decrease in the number of applicants for a medical card this year. That and the fact that one cannot charge more for an EPC is affecting our bottom line. Medical clinics are closing and patient’s are forced to drive 6 hours or more to get to a medical clinic from rural locations. Many patients are requesting EPC’s with increased limits, since there is no additional charge. EPC’s are more work for the medical clinics, additional records and paperwork, and time to complete the on line data entry, yet there is no additional compensation. The State is also limiting how often we can see our patients: we are not allowed to see them more than once a year, regardless of their medical needs. All things considered, medical marijuana is not in a good place in this state.

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