Colorado just recorded its lowest cannabis sales in five years. From January to October 2025, shoppers spent a little more than $1.1 billion on legal marijuana, a sharp fall from the $1.4 billion spent in the same ten months of 2024. The once-booming market has now shrunk for three straight years, leaving growers, store owners, and state officials searching for answers.
State revenue data released this week shows medical and adult-use sales combined hit $1.107 billion through October. That marks a 21% decline year-over-year and puts 2025 on track to finish well under $1.3 billion for the full year.
The slide started in 2023 after a peak of $1.77 billion in 2021. Every year since has been lower, and 2025 is shaping up to be the worst yet. October alone brought in only $96.2 million, the slowest single month since February 2020, right before the pandemic surge.
Too Much Weed, Not Enough Buyers
Industry veterans point to simple supply and demand.
Colorado now has more than 2,900 licensed cultivation plants and over 1,000 retail stores. Growers added capacity every year since 2014, expecting endless growth. Instead, heavy harvests have crushed wholesale prices.
A pound of indoor-grown flower that fetched $1,500 in 2020 now sells for $500 to $700 on the wholesale market. Some outdoor growers report prices as low as $350. Many say they lose money on every harvest.
“We built for ten million customers and got four million,” one Denver wholesaler told reporters this week.
Shoppers Feel the Price Crash Too
Lower wholesale costs finally reached consumers in 2025. The average price for an eighth of an ounce (3.5 grams) of flower fell below $20 in many stores this fall, half of what it cost two years ago.
Yet cheaper weed has not sparked more buying. Regular users already stock up when prices drop, and new customers remain hard to find. Colorado’s population grew only 0.5% last year, far slower than states like Texas and Florida that still ban recreational sales.
Black Market Fights Back Hard
Police and store owners agree: illegal dealers undercut legal shops on every corner.
A quick drive through Denver or Colorado Springs reveals delivery services advertising on Instagram and Snapchat with prices 30% to 50% below state-regulated stores. They skip the 15% excise tax, 15% sales tax, and strict testing rules.
“Customers ask why they should pay $35 for a legal cart when the guy down the block sells the same thing for $15,” said the owner of a chain of five dispensaries. “We can’t compete with no taxes and no rules.”
What the Numbers Really Show
| Year (Jan-Oct) | Total Sales | Year-over-Year Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $1.82 billion | +12% |
| 2022 | $1.62 billion | -11% |
| 2023 | $1.45 billion | -10% |
| 2024 | $1.40 billion | -3% |
| 2025 | $1.11 billion | -21% |
The sudden speed of this year’s drop has caught even longtime watchers by surprise.
Colorado still collects hundreds of millions in cannabis taxes each year, but the steady decline threatens school construction funds and other programs that count on the revenue. Lawmakers now face tough choices about possible tax cuts or new rules to shrink the oversupply.
Many small growers and retailers worry they will not survive another year like this. Hundreds of stores have already closed since 2022, and more layoffs hit the news every month.
The state that pioneered legal weed is learning a hard lesson: even a mature market can shrink fast when prices crash, competition grows fierce, and cheaper illegal options wait on every phone.