According to Colorado officials, licensed marijuana retail outlets had a 99% success rate during a string of recent underage sales checks.
According to the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), which is part of the Colorado Department of Revenue, there has been 285 compliance checks for underage sales conducted at marijuana stores so far this year. Marijuana stores failed in just 1% of these checks.
“While any failure is unacceptable, we are pleased to report this very high compliance rate which is on par with the compliance percentage from 2022″, the MED said in an e-mail.
Compliance rates for underage checks in 2022 were also at 99%, a record-high at the time. Compliance rates in 2021 were at 95%.
In 2020 and 2019 compliance rates were 97%, noticeably higher than the 92% compliance rate in 2018.
“MED’s priority is protecting public health and safety, and nothing is more important than preventing youth access to regulated marijuana. While the data continually shows us that minors are overwhelmingly not getting marijuana from regulated stores, underage sales checks of licensed stores are a vital tool to keep it that way.”
Under Colorado’s marijuana law, marijuana and marijuana products (edibles, concentrates, etc.) can be legally purchased and consumed, given the person is at least 21 years old. Colorado, along with Washington State, was the first to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012.
According to data released by the Colorado Department of Revenue, there was about $140 million worth of legal marijuana and marijuana products sold in September, and there has been $1.2 billion sold year-to-date.
