EARLY BUMP EXPECTED IN POT SALES

POST-LEGALIZATION

skyrocketed 42.4 per cent between 2014 — the first year recreational pot sales were permitted in the state — and 2015, when they totalled US$996 million.

“We’ve had unbelievably high year-over-year growth rates in sales,” Orens said in an interview, adding the group expects similar sales booms in other pot-regulating places such as Washington state, California and Oregon.

“This is a conversion of an existing, informal market into a formal, regulated market and you’re going to see several years of very fast growth.”

After the initial surge, however, he noted the Colorado study predicted considerably slower sales growth under the expectation that the black market will gradually be swallowed up. The report projected sales growth of 13.1 per cent in the state in 2020.

While every jurisdiction is different, Canada’s population is seven times larger than Colorado’s.

The Trudeau government, which recently introduced legislation to legalize recreational pot, has begun assessing the economic impacts of a regulated pot industry in Canada as well as taxation options.

To date, the feds have provided few details in public on how the new industry could benefit the economy and the government’s bottom line.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the feds’ first concerns are taking weed out of the hands of kids and yanking the profits away from criminals.

He has indicated any revenues from marijuana taxation should fund addiction treatment, mental health services and public health education.