(COLORADO SPRINGS) — New Year’s Day marked the 10th anniversary of Colorado’s legal marijuana market. The state was the first jurisdiction in the world to regulate and sell cannabis for adult use, and 10 years later, the industry appears to be experiencing some growing pains.

From January 2014 through August 2023, total sales of marijuana, including medical and recreational cannabis, surpassed $15 billion, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. In 2023, sales were $1.3 billion as of the end of October, trailing 2022’s $1.77 billion in sales and 2021’s $2.2 billion in sales.

“By any objective measure, legalization in Colorado has been successful,” said Mason Tvert, VS Strategies partner. “Ultimately, our goal was to allow adults to use marijuana responsibly and purchase it legally and safely in licensed businesses and that’s exactly what’s taking place.”

Since 2014, about $15.28 billion in regulated marijuana sales have taken place in licensed Colorado marijuana stores, and the state has collected approximately $2.6 billion in revenue from marijuana taxes and fees.

The past two years have industry insiders wondering how to get business booming again, while those against the industry want more regulations.

“The vast majority of the money that’s being spent out there is to push irresponsible messages about marijuana that, it’s harmless, that it’s medicine, that it helps you and no one is hearing the fact that science tells us that today’s marijuana is up to 40 times more potent than it’s ever been in the history of the plant,” said Luke Niforatos, Executive Vice President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana has the primary focus of educating the public about what they call the harms of marijuana legalization.

“Looking back at the 10 years of legalization we’ve had here in Colorado, it’s that for 10 years we have allowed the fox to guard the henhouse,” Niforatos said. “The industry is leading the way on all regulations of this substance.”

While marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, proponents of the measure say there are still some roadblocks when it comes to tax issues and banking.

“I’d say perhaps the best part of this law is that it has the flexibility for legislators and regulators to go back and make tweaks as needed based on whether it’s public opinion or new developments in science and technology,” Tvert explained. “We just continue to improve upon that policy and also learn from other states.”

There are now 24 states with legal recreational cannabis. Those against the industry want to see sales continue to decrease and are encouraging other cities to follow Colorado Springs.

“What we would recommend for state lawmakers and city level lawmakers to do is, deal with the high-potency marijuana,” Niforatos explained. “We need to do anything we can to lower the potency of these products, right now Colorado has no cap on the potency of marijuana. We also would like to see at the local level, more cities do exactly what Colorado Springs did, which is ban marijuana shops. Right now Colorado Springs has medical marijuana shops, but they have banned recreational shops, we think that’s the right policy.”

“At this point, Colorado Springs is the only largely populated locality that is not allowing some form of adult-use marijuana business,” Tvert explained. “It’s unfortunate because marijuana is going to be there. It’s going to be used whether it’s being sold locally or in a neighboring city or up in Denver and the question is, number one, does Colorado Springs want that tax revenue? Number two, doesn’t want the jobs that are being created by these businesses, and number three, why would they want citizens and adults to have to travel elsewhere to purchase these products at worst, turn to the illegal market to purchase these products when they could just be buying them legally at stores, much like liquor stores?”

COVID-19 brought about a boom for the cannabis industry and as sales begin to even out following the pandemic, groups like Smart Approaches to Marijuana are prioritizing safety as more proposals surrounding marijuana move forward.