With more states legalizing recreational weed, will sales in Colorado suffer?

Colorado’s marijuana sales continue to rise, from more than $683 million sold the first year it was legal to more than $1.2 billion from January to October this year.

But with more and more states legalizing recreational cannabis, will sales in Colorado suffer?

Dispensary owner and economics professor Jim Parco doesn’t think so.

“Even in states where it’s legal because they can’t actually take cannabis across state lines when they get to Colorado, they’re also going to have to buy cannabis,” Parco said.

He said many of his customers are first-time users and that’s why sales keep increasing.

“Even today, about half the people that walk into our dispensary are first-time consumers; they’ve never used cannabis before. So we’re seeing this increase in demand month over month,” Parco said.

But the increases have diminished over the years. Sales grew 45 percent after the first year but growth is less than 10 percent this year.

Parco attributes that to the rush to buy when Colorado was the first to legalize.

“Now, with eight states legal across the United States, there are other places to go,” Parco said.

But Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace says locals have always been the bread and butter of the industry.

“I don’t think Nevada will have a huge impact on Colorado. I think what’s likely to happen is tourists visiting Las Vegas might enjoy the novelty of going to a legal dispensary,” Pace said.

And as more states legalize, Pace says’s they’ll look to Colorado for guidance.

“Certain things are improved based on the lessons that we learned, and we learned them first,” Pace said.

The bottom line is both of these two industry experts are confident the state that paved the way for legalization will see continued growth.