Colorado’s regulated cannabis industry suffered its “worst 4/20 in five years,” according to the Marijuana Industry Group, citing a roughly 14% decline in April marijuana sales from the same month last year.
“Marijuana sales in the month of April haven’t been this low since 2018,” the Denver-based trade group noted in a news release.
Monthly figures released by the Colorado Department of Revenue show nearly $131.6 million in total marijuana sales for April. That’s down from $153 million in sales in April 2022.
Neither the Department of Revenue nor the Marijuana Industry Group (MIG) offered a breakdown on 4/20 sales in Colorado.
The April sales total includes approximately $114.8 million in recreational marijuana sales (down 12.8% year-over-year) and $16.7 million in medical cannabis sales (down 21.6% year-over-year).
The annual sales decline in April follows a disappointing 2022 for legal recreational and medical marijuana retailers in Colorado, with annual sales down more than 20% from 2021’s record sales total.
“Colorado cannabis small business owners count on the weeks leading up to the 4/20 holiday to be some of the strongest sales of the year,” MIG Executive Director Truman Bradley said in a statement.
Bradley called for “a regulatory overhaul to prevent more cannabis small business owners from closing their doors and laying off their workers.”
“We earnestly hope that Colorado’s policymakers will start taking a new approach to marijuana policy, one that will protect small business owners and the public programs funded by cannabis.”
Colorado is the oldest legal adult-use cannabis market in the U.S., but the state’s cannabis boom is largely considered to be over.
