For nearly two decades, Colorado remained at the forefront of the cannabis revolution. They were one of the first ten states to legalize medical marijuana by the year 2000, and they made history in 2012 by becoming the first state to legalize recreational (adult-use) cannabis. With annual events like the Mile High 420 Festival, the opening of canna lounges, and more than a quarter of adults using marijuana every year, Colorado has long been regarded as a major player in weed culture.
Since those early years, though, the market has changed drastically — particularly the medical market. Naturally, there was going to be some decline in patients after recreational cannabis was legalized; after all, many people simply don’t want to deal with the process of getting a med card. But the changes in numbers — from 128,000 in 2011 to less than 66,000 in 2023 — are indicative of much larger issues within the state.
This problem isn’t entirely unique to Colorado; quite a few states with established medical programs notice dips in patient numbers after adult-use legalization passes. However, it’s the proposed solutions for this where states vary. For example, when recreational cannabis passed in Ohio earlier this year, they dropped their medical card registration fees to just one penny in a bid to keep their medical program alive and well. Whether or not this will help boost patient numbers remains to be seen, but there’s no denying it seems like a fair try.
Colorado, on the other hand, is taking a different approach.
As the state’s cannabis market starts to take significant hits regarding revenue, jobs, and dispensaries, legislators have responded by moving to increase both med card registration fees and licensing fees for marijuana businesses. Although this is an attempt by the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) to recoup its financial losses and generate revenue to keep running, it unfortunately stands to hurt patients and local business owners alike.
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Colorado’s declining cannabis market can be attributed to a number of factors, from the legalization of cannabis in neighboring states to the meteoric rise of intoxicating hemp products around the country after the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. And while other states used to look up to Colorado, using it as an example for their own cannabis markets, the opposite is now true as states begin viewing Colorado as a cautionary tale.
If the overall cannabis market in Colorado is struggling, the medical program is even worse off. Many attribute this to the passage of House Bill 1317 in 2021, which cut the amount of concentrates patients could purchase, mandated that physicians perform mental health checks on patients, and put millions of dollars into funding an anti-cannabis youth campaign. This, combined with a difficult-to-use website, a drop in marijuana doctors outside of major cities, and the shuttering of dispensaries across the state, have made accessing medical cannabis the hardest it’s been since the program’s initial inception.
The licensing fee increase was voted on in 2023, but the change in Colorado med card fees is more recent and set to go into effect in October of this year. The current annual registration fee is $29.50 and will be nearly doubled to $52. The MED says that this is a necessary raise to keep the program going, but proponents of medical marijuana believe it is likely to drive patients away from a program that is already bleeding heavily.
“There is no political will at this time to continue helping marijuana patients in Colorado,” Cannabis Clinicians Colorado director Martha Montemayor told Westword earlier this year, “but I’m hopeful for the future, and that we will get some new ideas in the legislature.”
The future revenue and growth of Colorado’s cannabis industry are more uncertain than ever, but doctors, cultivators, dispensary workers, politicians, and other marijuana advocates across the state are beginning to band together in an effort to change course. With any luck, the tide will eventually turn again in favor of cannabis and the patients who need it — and hopefully, it will reinstate Colorado as a leader in the industry once more.
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