Colorado Marijuana Sales Continue Getting Colder in 2024. Low-Potency Weed Won't Heat Things Up.

Colorado marijuana sales continued falling on a monthly and annual basis through the fall, state Department of Revenue data shows.

Looks like low-potency pot isn't sparking a sales revolution at dispensaries after all.

A little over a week after the 9News story "Weaker weed sparking higher sales in Colorado" talked about how low-potency cannabis was driving new customers and more sales, the DOR's dispensary sales reports show anything but. According to the most recent release, dispensary sales fell on an annual and monthly basis in September, a trend that has become all too common in the first state to legalize retail marijuana.

Marijuana tax revenue reports, released a month earlier than sales numbers, indicate falling dispensary revenue through October, as well.

After increasing for seven straight years to a record $2.2 billion in 2021, annual marijuana sales have been free-falling in Colorado, hitting just over $1.5 billion for 2023. Based on the first ten months of this year, dispensaries are on pace to collect around $1.3 billion in 2024, according to DOR marijuana sales reports.

Commercial marijuana is still stuck in a rut as wholesale prices hit record lows and national companies flee the state. And as prices and dispensary sales decline, over one-third of Colorado's growing licenses have been surrendered or have expired, state records show.
Everything from intoxicating hemp to overly potent cannabis has been blamed for the continued drop in sales, but years ago, many business owners told Westword that Colorado's marijuana industry was going to drop off in 2020 or 2021 — before COVID-19 hit. Dispensary sales skyrocketed during the pandemic's stay-home restrictions, giving many marijuana businesses a false sense of security and inspiring expansion plans. Since the latter half of 2021, however, marijuana sales have plummeted as more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana sales and Colorado's cannabis tourism sector fades away.

And you know what isn't going to return Colorado to that $2 billion sales mark? Low-grade weed from dispensary chains.

Budtenders at Fired, Lightshade, LivWell, Maikoh Hollistics and Reefer Madness dispensaries all report customers occasionally asking for high-CBD strains or clients who prefer flavor, smells and other characteristics over THC percentages, but rarely do people come into their stores asking for strains with low testing numbers. Commercial growers and extractors at Green Dot Labs, Meraki and Mighty Melts say largely the same of wholesale buyers, with some growers noting that dispensaries won't buy strains that don't test over 20 percent THC.

Not that THC numbers mean much, anyway. Marijuana testing labs have left the state after allegations of inflated potency numbers, and the rules surrounding post-harvest potency testing can be manipulated in several ways, from loose-but-legal — like only selling the best nugs of the harvest — to downright illegal, like spraying buds with extracted THC before testing.

Moral of the story: The nose always knows. The quality of cannabis, just like industry claims, can always be sniffed out by a good honker.