After four consecutive months of record-setting growth, sales of recreational pot in Colorado leveled off in April — the same month pot taxes earmarked for school construction capital reached an all-time high, according to new Department of Revenue data.
Around $42.4 million of recreational pot was sold in Colorado in April, down from — the first decline in retail marijuana sales in the state in five months. Meanwhile April’s medical sales, which totaled $31.9 million in Colorado dispensaries, were nearly identical to March’s tallies.
One April statistic set an all-time record: the excise taxes collected for school construction capital. More than $3.1 million was raised via the excise tax on wholesale marijuana transfers in April, up from the previous record of $2.6 million, set in March. These monthly taxes earmarked for schools never topped $2 million in 2014 — but they’ve already raised more than $10 million in the first four months of 2015, compared with only $13.3 million in all of 2014.
“It’s really good to see the excise tax increasing and providing needed money for the public school construction fund,” said Christian Sederberg, a partner at the cannabis-focused Denver law firm Vicente Sederberg and one of the authors of Colorado’s pot-legalizing Amendment 64.
