New Study: Successes and Setbacks in Colorado’s Retail Marijuana Policy

The Colorado Health Institute released a study today on the public policy successes and setbacks of legalized marijuana sales in Colorado, which became the first state to legalize retail marijuana on January 1, 2014.

While predictions centered on crime waves, an epidemic of overdoses, skyrocketing drug use among kids and a tax windfall for schools, none of this has happened.

Instead, more than a year later, the most pressing issues are how to label edible marijuana products, how to deal with unpredictable tax revenues and how the state’s marijuana merchants can safely bank their money.

The CHI research brief – “Legal Marijuana Coming Into Focus: An Analysis of Colorado’s Policy Landscape” – reports that the size and scope of Colorado’s marijuana market is beginning to come into focus in this second year of legalization.

Colorado’s pioneering regulators and policymakers have many hard-won lessons to share with the states – and even countries – making this leap in public policy as they contemplate legalizing retail marijuana.

CHI’s analysts identified six policy lessons from Colorado’s first-out-of-the-gate experience:

“Seed to Sale” Regulation Works, But Only When It’s Used.

The careful tracking of marijuana from growers to retailers is intended to make sure pot is kept out of the hands of minors and black market drug dealers. For the most part, the system works, but not all marijuana is regulated in this way. And there is no “sale to smoke” system to track pot after it leaves a retail store.

Legalization Has Led To Neither Economic Boom Nor Economic Doom.

Both supporters and detractors of legalization overstated its effects on Colorado’s economy.

Marijuana Revenue Is Not Rocky Mountain High.

Tax revenue in the first year has lagged predictions. A number of factors, some unique to Colorado, have made it hard to accurately anticipate sales levels.

Bring In the Banks or Bank On Trouble.

Threats of federal prosecution are keeping banks on the sideline, which has forced marijuana businesses to deal in cash, increasing the risk of crime and making it harder to police.

It’s Not Your Grandfather’s Marijuana.

Today’s pot is much more potent, and it comes in new forms, such as edibles. Colorado failed to completely anticipate how much attention edibles would attract and how difficult it would be to regulate them.

We Know What We Don’t Know About Health.

Colorado didn’t have much data on marijuana’s health impacts before voters legalized it, and public health knowledge is still scant. 

CHI’s research was led by Sara Schmitt, Director of Community Health Policy; Research Analyst Hannah Wear; and Joe Hanel, Senior Communications Expert.

Need More Information?

Lead Researcher Sara Schmitt is available at schmitts@coloradohealthinstitute.org or at 720-382-7081. Deborah Goeken, Senior Director of Communications, is available at goekend@coloradohealthinstitute.org or at 720-382-7094.