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Read the Evidence: Proof You Were Paying Too Much Proof Some People Weren’t Paying At All

Proof Some People Weren’t Paying At All

Colorado Marijuana Tax Revenue
and the Programs It Funds.

While legitimate licensees were overpaying on inflated rates, the state was simultaneously failing to collect from operators who weren't reporting honestly. Both problems share a root cause: MED enforcement that doesn't work.

$366.1M FY 2021-22 Baseline First post-COVID year
$231.1M FY 2024-25 Actual −36.9% vs. baseline
$135M Annual Tax Revenue Gap Lost every year vs. FY 21-22
−55% BEST Grants FY 24-25 → FY 26-27 projection

1. Colorado Marijuana Tax Revenue

Rise, peak, decline.

Colorado marijuana tax revenue peaked in FY 2020-21 at over $420M - a COVID anomaly when consumers spent stimulus dollars at dispensaries. That settled to $366.1M in FY 2021-22, the first post-COVID year, which the Joint Budget Committee treats as the baseline. Since then, revenue has fallen every year, ending FY 2024-25 at $231.1M - a 36.9% drop from the baseline.

Colorado Marijuana Tax Revenue by Fiscal Year IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS $500 $400 $300 $200 $100 $0 ~$70 ~$125 ~$190 ~$250 ~$300 ~$340 ~$420 $366.1 ~$290 ~$240 $231.1 2018 Farm Bill (hemp loopholes) COVID ANOMALY stimulus-driven peak BASELINE -36.9% vs. baseline 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24 24-25 Rise COVID Peak Baseline Decline (post-baseline)
Source: Colorado Department of Revenue Marijuana Tax Reports; Legislative Council Staff. FY 2014-15 through FY 2019-20 figures rounded; FY 2021-22 baseline and FY 2024-25 actual are exact.

2. Here’s What Coloradans Lost

Programs cut as marijuana tax revenue fell.

Schools left to rot.

BEST school construction (roofs, HVAC, asbestos, rebuilds). First $40M of marijuana excise tax.

$57M

Opioid-addiction treatment gutted.

CU’s Medication-Assisted Treatment pilot - buprenorphine and methadone for opioid users - defunded by SB25-268.

$3M

Addiction beds and recovery homes gone.

Residential / inpatient SUD treatment, −$30.3M. Partial-hospitalization benefit repealed. Recovery housing reduced.

$30M+

The state’s 988 crisis line does less.

Behavioral Health Administration - runs the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, mobile crisis teams, statewide SUD response.

$5.9M

Fewer counselors and nurses in your kid’s school.

School Health Professionals Grant capped at 80% on continuation. MTCF-funded.

~$2M

Local enforcement against the black market - defunded.

Gray & Black Market Marijuana Enforcement Grant Program - funded local police and DAs to investigate unlicensed cultivation. Eliminated by SB25-246.

ELIMINATED

Local governments lose 65% of their share.

Marijuana sales-tax distribution to municipalities and counties cut from 10% to 3.5% (SB25-268).

$13M+

Marijuana youth-prevention campaign cut.

CDPHE public-awareness campaign reduction maintained - Governor’s restore request denied by JBC.

$0.8M
Total cut from marijuana-funded programs
$110M+
But marijuana tax revenue went uncollected last year
$135M
LEFT OVER - enough to fund every cut
$25M

The Bottom Line

Every budget cut could have been funded.

The $135M revenue gap has multiple causes - market consolidation, price compression, and hemp-derived inversion among them. But MED's own enforcement deputy admits, on tape, that bad actors are gaming the data unchecked.

Sources: SB25-268 (2025); JBC FY 26-27 staff briefings; CDE SHPG; LCS R25-569; CDOR Marijuana Tax Reports.

3. MED Admits It On Tape

Kyle Lambert, Deputy Senior Director - March 24, 2026

MED admits it’s “inherently reactive” - by the time they show up, the evidence is gone.

“We’re really in a reactive position on that. By the time we get out to places, a lot of times this plant material is gone. We don’t see what was transferred in.”

- 45:36

$1 placeholders fill METRC. MED doesn’t police them.

“The amount of penny and dollar transactions that are reported in [Metrc] would probably explode your minds. … That’s not something that we spend time on.”

- 47:18

MED’s own deputy senior director calls the data “crap.”

“There’s a lot of crap data in there that it is really hard for us to proactively go take action on a transfer-price data.”

- 50:44

Audits run 2-3 years late. Bad actors are gone by then.

“The field audit, it’s not timely. It takes forever. So people can go two or three years without an audit and they’re manipulating numbers … maybe they’re gone, and they’re under a whole new entity.”

- 50:55

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You may have a claim if you held a Colorado cultivation, MIP, retail, or vertically integrated license at any point during the affected period - even if you’ve since exited the market. Two minutes to add your name. No commitment.

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