Colorado imposed a 39% tax on marijuana.

Oct 31, 2026

Previously: Colorado imposed a 39% tax on marijuana. [Distorted]: Colorado did put heavy, stacked taxes on recreational marijuana and sent a large share of the money to school construction. But it never had a single 39% tax. The voter-approved state taxes in 2013 were a 15% excise tax charged at the wholesale level plus a 10% retail sales tax, raised to 15% in 2017, on top of normal sales taxes and local add-ons, and the Tax Foundation worked out an all-in effective rate of about 29% in Denver at launch. A Colorado Department of Revenue figure showing a typical combined effective rate near 39% would prove this verdict wrong.

Now: Colorado imposed a 39% tax on marijuana. [Unverified]: Joe says he thinks the rate was about 39%. Colorado's initial state framework included a 10% special retail tax, the general sales tax and a 15% wholesale excise tax; these were not all imposed on the same price base, and local taxes vary. The state record does not establish his 39% estimate, but it also cannot rule out every combined local effective burden. The exact rate stays unresolved.

The original rebuttal substituted a Denver calculation for an unspecified place, date and effective tax base.