Weed stores in Colorado have sold US$598m (A$775m) worth of cannabis and related products in the first half of 2016, raising the question – when the fuck are we gonna legalise and tax this shit in Oz?
ALSO: Medical cannabis in NSW – what does it mean?
The US$73.6 million in recreational cannabis sales alone last June was the second biggest month for Colorado sales, reports Denver Post’s The Cannabist, beaten only by (you guessed it) April – no doubt courtesy of April 20. Plus, experts say the state is on-track to reach the US$1.35b mark by the end of 2016.
“The rate of growth in this industry never ceases to astound us,” cannabis business analyst Roy Bingham (BDS) told Ricardo Baca. “The combined recreational and medical markets are more than two years old, yet they both continue to expand rapidly — especially the recreational marketplace. And within the overall market, sales in every segment, from concentrates to flower to edibles, continue to swell.”
So how much of said $598m became tax revenue for the state? Only a casual A$114m – or, you know, pretty much the same amount the NSW government is spending on its new two-year youth unemployment program, Smart, Skilled and Hired.
