The state’s marijuana shops raked in $1.51 billion sales of medical and recreational flower, edibles and concentrate products during 2017, according to Colorado Department of Revenue data released last Friday. Adult-use sales topped $1.09 billion in 2017, with the remaining $416.52 million coming from medical marijuana. Cannabis sales in the state were up 15.3 percent in 2017 compared to sales growth of 31 percent in 2016.

What does this mean?

Colorado continues to have solid growth in state-legal marijuana sales but have slowed down considerably compared to 2016.  Clearly the market is moving towards a plateau or possibly even a regression in 2018 due to new adult-use markets like California and Nevada recently coming online. Operators in Colorado need to be prepared for market consolidation, tighter margins and increased competition.