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Colorado Monthly Marijuana Sales Top $100,000,000 with No Banking Partners in Sight

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:45 PM
Justin OConnell
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:45 PM

medical marijuanaThe Colorado Department of Revenue released data showing recreational pot sales at $59.2 million in August, with medical marijuana dispensaries reaching $41.4 million for a total of $100.6 million in sales overall.

“It means that $100 million is going to licensed, taxpaying businesses, creating jobs and helping to build new schools,” Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Yahoo News, “Instead of going to cartels and drug dealers — as is the case in the 46 states that don’t regulate marijuana.”

In spite of the sales, marijuana businesses haven’t anywhere to put the cash. As CCN.com reported in August, the US Federal Reserve and National Credit Union Administration has blocked efforts to normalize banking relationships with marijuana businesses.

The National Credit Union Administration wrote that the marijuana industry “does not have an established track record of success and remains illegal at the federal level.” Critics say making businesses deal in cash puts them at risk for robbery and their employees at risk for muggings on their way home from work.

Trees CEO Marshall Hayner thinks cannabis industry needs Bitcoin. “The industry is about $2.5 billion dollars, and there is not a single banking partner in sight,” the CEO said at Coin Congress 2015 in San Francisco.  The CEO had big predictions for the marijuana industry. “Big tobacco is about $35 billion per year. It’s looking like cannabis will be $10 billion by early next year,” he said.

Also read: Trees CEO On Cannabis & Bitcoin

Images from Shutterstock.