Dear Stoner: Has Colorado's weed bubble popped now that all of these other places allow it? It's not just a few states anymore.
Ryan
Dear Ryan: Maybe a slow deflation. Our crystal ball is too hotboxed to see through, though, so let’s travel backward to gauge what to anticipate for Colorado’s cannabis industry. The country’s largest statewide market, California, has allowed recreational pot sales since the beginning of 2018, the same year that Colorado broke its own annual record for weed sales...only to break it again in 2019. More Colorado towns than ever before allow dispensaries, and if you count the hemp and CBD spaces, we’re still a cannabis epicenter. But that growth will slow at some point.
- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Denver and help keep the future of Westword free.
A recent state report showed that taxable revenue from dispensary marijuana sales is expected to reach around 10.4 percent growth from July 2019 through June of this year, then drop to 1.4 percent during the same span in 2020-’21 as the industry consolidates and new dispensary opportunities become more scarce around Colorado. New revenue in social-use businesses and delivery could provide another bump in coming years, however, so the pot trade should be sustainable.
Send questions to marijuana@westword.com.
Keep Westword Free... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Denver with no paywalls.
