Livgreen
Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Slurricane, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher, White 99
Magnolia Rd
Bananaghani, Cake Pop, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, MIL, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Slurricane, Strawberries N Cream, Sueno, Super Sour Lemon, White 99
Magnolia Rd
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Lava Breath #2, MIL, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Sherb Crasher, Slurricane, Strawberries N Cream, Sueno, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Veritas Cookies, WRZ, White 99, Yuk Mouth
Native Roots
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Black Amber, Cake Pop, Cereal Barz, Cookies N Cream, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Lava Breath #2, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, OZ Kush, Peach Crescendo #2, Peking Duck #6, Sherb Crasher, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher, White 99
RiNo Supply
Cereal Barz, Colorado Cutthroat, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, Wedding Crasher
Ripple
Macchiato Haze #8, RUN, Space Gello, Veritas Cookies
Rocky Mountain Cannabis
Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage
Rocky Mountain Cannabis
Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
Rocky Road
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Strawberries N Cream, Super Lemon G, White 99
Rocky Road Remedies
Big Bubba Diesel, Cherry Punch, FUN, Super Lemon G
Roots RX
Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, Unicorn Poop
Roots Rx
Bananaghani, Durban Kush #8, Miracle Alien Cookies, Pineapple Blast, Sherb Crasher, Sour Rado, Space Gello, Unicorn Poop
SMOKEY'S
Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Miracle Alien Cookies
Skunked
Cherry Punch, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
Smokey's
Cereal Barz, Colorado Cutthroat, Durban Kush #8, Super Sour Lemon, WRZ, Yuk Mouth
Solace Meds
Bananaghani, Sherb Crasher, Space Gello
Space Station
Big Bubba Diesel, Miracle Alien Cookies
Standing Akimbo
Apple Fritter, Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Black Amber, Cereal Barz, Cookies N Cream, FUN, Frozen Dessert, Lava Breath #2, MIL, Miracle Alien Cookies, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Peach Crescendo #2, Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Sour Rado, Strawberries N Cream, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher
TGS
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Grape OZ, Malibu Mirage, Muffinz Breath #1, OZ Kush, Peking Duck #6, Pineapple Blast, Sherb Crasher, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, WOF, Wedding Crasher, White 99, Yuk Mouth
THE GREEN SOLUTION
Cherry Punch, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
The 404 Dispensary
Bananaghani, Cake Pop, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Malibu Mirage, Muffinz Breath #1, White 99
The 64 Store
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G, White 99
The Dispo
Big Bubba Diesel, Cherry Punch, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Frozen Dessert, Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies, OZ Kush, Pineapple Blast, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Super Sour Lemon, Triangle OG, White 99
The Happy Camper
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, El Chivo #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Veritas Cookies, White 99
Third Day Apothecary
Cherry Punch, Super Lemon G
Tumbleweed
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Sour Diesel
1136 Yuma
Grape Gasoline S1, Miracle Alien Cookies
A Cut Above
Gelato 41, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
ANNA
Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Sour Diesel, White 99
Best High
Veritas Cookies
Blue Heron
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Malibu Mirage, Super Lemon G, Veritas Cookies
Buku Loud
RUN, Sour Diesel
Canna Cabinet
Big Bubba Diesel, El Chivo #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Macchiato Haze #8, Malibu Mirage, Peach Crescendo #2, RUN, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Super Lemon G, The Sauce
Cannabicare
El Chivo #4, White 99
Cherry Peak
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, FUN, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, MIL, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, Peach Crescendo #2, Sour Diesel, Sour Rado, Strawberry Shortcake, Sueno, Sunset Drive, Super Lemon G, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies, White 99
Colorado Harvest Company
Bananaghani, Black Amber, Cereal Barz, Cherry Punch, Colorado Cutthroat, Durban Kush #8, El Chivo #4, Frozen Dessert, Gastro Pop #4, Gelato 41, Grape Gasoline S1, Grape OZ, Lucky Charms, Macchiato Haze #8, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sour Diesel, Space Gello, Super Lemon G, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
Emerald Fields
Big Bubba Diesel, Cereal Barz, Miracle Alien Cookies
Euflora
Bananaghani, Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage
Green Dragon
Bananaghani, Black Amber, Lucky Charms, Macchiato Haze #8, Malibu Mirage, Miracle Alien Cookies, RUN, Sherb Crasher, Space Gello, The Sauce, Veritas Cookies, Wedding Crasher
Green World
Cherry Punch, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G
HERBS 4 YOU
Unicorn Poop
Herbal Healing
Big Bubba Diesel, Cake Pop, Forza Sans Souci #4, Gastro Pop #4, Miracle Alien Cookies, Sour Diesel, Triangle OG, Unicorn Poop, Veritas Cookies
Higher Grade
Cherry Punch, El Chivo #4, Forza Sans Souci #4, Grape Gasoline S1, Super Lemon G, White 99
Kika Kush
Bananaghani, Gelato 41, Sherb Crasher, Veritas Cookies
Kind Meds
Big Bubba Diesel, Malibu Mirage, Veritas Cookies

October 17, 2022

As Prices Drop, Marijuana Growers Want Colorado to Stop Issuing New Licenses

THOMAS MITCHELL OCTOBER 3, 2022 10:36AM

Jacqueline Collins

As wholesale marijuana prices reach record lows, a group of Colorado growers has requested that the state stop issuing cultivation licenses.

Medical marijuana sales have experienced their lowest recorded monthly totals five times so far in 2022, and the price per pound of all commercial marijuana reached a record low last month, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. The drop in prices has led to a steady decline in recreational sales for over a year, DOR data shows, with inflation and reduced marijuana tourism both cited as contributing factors by marijuana business owners.

However, the biggest contributor to tanking weed prices is an oversupply of product, according to a coalition of thirty Colorado marijuana growers and dispensary ownership groups.

"For the first time since legalization was implemented, marijuana sales and the revenue generated from marijuana taxes will be substantially lower than the previous calendar year," reads a September 15 memo to the state from the coalition. "The problem is further exacerbated by the countryโ€™s broader economic situation, with record-high inflation driving down sales of consumer goods. Despite a decrease in demand, the supply of marijuana continues to increase, with new licenses being issued and additional cultivation capacity being authorized to current licensees."

There are 798 active recreational marijuana growing licenses in Colorado, according to the MED, up from 716 at the beginning of 2021. During that same span, the average price per pound of marijuana flower has fallen nearly 62 percent, while annual dispensary sales are currently on pace to come up about 20 percent short of the $2.2 billion sold in 2021. As prices and sales continue falling, dispensaries and growers have had to lay off staff; some have shut down altogether.

Colorado's marijuana regulations enable a tier system for growers, with cultivations allowed to grow a certain number of plants based on the amount of marijuana they sell the previous year. According to Stan Zislis, co-owner of dispensary chain Silver Stem Fine Cannabis, this tier system set up the wholesale market for an inevitable retraction.

"COVID threw a lifeline to the marijuana industry, but once that was over, the marijuana industry in Colorado has been in a free fall," Zislis said during a MED rulemaking hearing September 30.

Silver Stem and 29 other marijuana producers, extractors and retailers sent a request to the MED proposing a moratorium on marijuana cultivation licenses for two years, according to a MED memo. The moratorium would make an exception for social equity licensees and allow licensed medical growing operations to apply for recreational growing permits. If current growing operations want to grow more plants than their production tiers allow, the coalition would like growers to provide "proof" such as vendor contracts, promise of sale notes or projected inventory data,

"Local jurisdictions such as Denver have already enacted a moratorium on new licenses for non-social equity applicants. A moratorium at the state level would complement those efforts. By stabilizing the supply chain, the state would be able to further pathways of success for small- and medium-sized marijuana companies," the coalition's memo reads.

The coalition includes ร„kta Creations, Astronomic, Bonsai Cultivation, C8 Brands, Cannabis Insurance Business, CB1 Logistics, Colorado Harvest Company, Dutch Botanicals, Emjโ€™s, Hava Gardens, High Q, Higher Grade, Humble Farms, Lโ€™Eagle, Lightshade, Lit Cannabis, Locol Love, NUHI, Olio, Revel Cultivars, Rocky Road Aurora, Silver Stem Fine Cannabis, Smokeyโ€™s Cannabis Co, Strawberry Fields Cannabis, the Health Center, the Lodge Cannabis, Three Rivers Dispensary, Treez, Veritas Fine Cannabis and Yeti Farms, according to the memo's letterhead.

In a separate memo sent September 13, the coalition also asked the MED to implement a holiday on the state's 15 percent excise tax currently placed on wholesale marijuana.

"As the marijuana market and the countryโ€™s overall economic outlook fluctuate, Colorado licensees cannot be expected to continue paying a tax that is widely viewed as fundamentally unfair. We are, therefore, proposing a tax holiday from the retail marijuana excise tax for all retail marijuana cultivation businesses until the issues outlined above are resolved," the memo to the MED reads. "Suspension of the retail excise tax will allow state and industry stakeholders to collaborate on next steps without continuing to levy an unfair and impractical tax against struggling businesses."

During the September 30 MED hearing, executive director Dominique Mendiola was skeptical that the MED had the authority to implement a licensing moratorium or tax holiday on marijuana, and suggested that marijuana business owners pursue those efforts through the Colorado Legislature.

Marijuana attorney Brian Vicente co-wrote Colorado's recreational marijuana legalization legislation in 2012 before expanding his law firm, Vicente Sederberg, into one of the largest marijuana-specific law firms in the country. Nearly ten years after recreational pot laws were implemented in Colorado, Vicente says he believes it's time that marijuana business owners and state regulators have a "robust discussion" about a licensing moratorium or cap on marijuana growing operations, but adds that there are "certainly two sides" to the discussion.

"There's definitely an SOS out on growers in Colorado," he says. "Many of them have been doing this for a decade and are used to a certain level of wholesale prices, so this is affecting everyone's bottom lime. I'm not sure if a moratorium is the most embraced option, but we've heard an SOS for all growers, and we need to consider all options."

Vicente argues against an excise tax holiday, however, given the revenue the tax collects for the state. Through the first eight months of 2022, Colorado marijuana excise tax brought in nearly $6.6 million a month on average, according to tax data from the DOR.

"I'd hate to see that line of revenue go away, so I think any sort of tax holiday or abatement would have to be talked about at length. The question is: Is it worth the tradeoff?" Vicente notes. "Are we willing to give up providing this legitimizing tax revenue to the state for business owners and consumers to save a couple bucks?"

Vicente expects both topics to continue playing out during industry discussions, and will likely be on the radar of state lawmakers in 2023. In the meantime, however, he believes that Colorado's state government should do more to empower marijuana growers during their first sustained down period.

"Governor Polis could do more to lobby on this issue, and he could do more to support Colorado [marijuana] farmers by really codifying the issue of whether federal legalization shifts, farmers can export this crop to other states," he says. "I think it's inevitable that we're going to have federal legalization. We've shown, in a very powerful way, that cannabis is an excellent crop for Colorado. In some ways, we're growing too much of it. If we can export Colorado cannabis to other states, it seems like a great move."

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