Daily Weather Report
Powered By:
Archive Information
Carrier Portal
Search
Buy Our Photos
Marijuana dispensaries and growers in Colorado Springs have two points to celebrate in the middle of April.
In addition to the annual “420” events on April 20, the past week also marked the first anniversary of the beginning of legal recreational sales in Colorado Springs. Businesses say the additional sales have stabilized the local marijuana industry and helped support city projects through the recent budget cuts.
Colorado Springs voters approved the ballot measure to begin allowing retail marijuana sales in November 2024. After intense City Council debate and a scuttled attempt at a second ballot measure to overturn the measure, the first retail licenses took effect last April.
Levi Hays has worked for Healing Canna on and off since 2009, around the time that medical marijuana sales were taking off in Colorado. Hays, now the chief information officer for the two Colorado Springs stores, said the additional retail sales have not solved the industry’s problems, but it has improved their stores, brought in new customers and given back to the community.
“We’re still flailing out in the ocean a bit, but now we have a life raft,” Hays said.
The City Clerk’s Office said that as of Thursday, there were 62 stores in Colorado Springs with retail marijuana licenses and 84 stores that were licensed for medical marijuana. Many stores were licensed for both, following a City Council ordinance that capped the total number of addresses that can receive a marijuana license at 125.
Silver Stem Fine Cannabis runs 11 stores across the state, including two in Colorado Springs. Co-CEO Stan Zislis said the stores were temporarily closed in 2024 while he worked with others on local legalization. During the closure, Zislis said Silver Stem paid to keep the medical licenses active and hoped that the November election would allow it to reopen with a new source of revenue.
“After so many years of banging our head against the wall and not making this happen, by the time it became real and we opened our doors, it took a bit to sink in,” Zislis said. “It was excitement and jitters.”
The Colorado Springs stores’ sales now perform around the middle of the pack of Silver Stem’s locations across the state. Both local stores hold licenses for medical and recreational sales, though Zislis said most of the demand has switched to recreational sales.
Zislis said not having to go through the prescription process made those sales much easier and more discreet. The same desire for discretion was why both Zislis and Hays identified weed edibles as a popular category.
“Because rec has so much more volume of products, there are more competitive prices. So even with the higher taxes on retail sales, the final prices are in many cases similar,” Zislis said.
Industry representatives said that across the many levels of sales tax they pay and the licensing fees for the city, retail marijuana has provided closer to $4 million in revenue for Colorado Springs in the last 12 months.
In the most recent monthly sales tax report, which covers sales made in February, medical and recreational marijuana provided a combined $152,000 in general sales tax revenue, a small portion of the roughly $18 million the city collected that month.
In addition, voters established a dedicated 5% tax on retail marijuana sales, which has to be spent on either public safety, mental health services or post-traumatic stress disorder treatment for veterans.
The dedicated tax has brought in $2.76 million in revenue during the first 11 months of sales. Colorado Springs Finance Director Charae McDaniel said the initial estimates for how much the tax would bring in had been conservative.
“Given the overall trends in the state, I don’t anticipate that we will replicate that maximum amount for a full year. So the projections might be a little less than that,” McDaniel said.
According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, overall sales and sales tax revenue on marijuana peaked in 2021 and have declined every year since. In 2025, the state saw just over $1.3 billion in marijuana sales.
The dedicated fund has been used for some high-profile budget issues. The training academy for the Colorado Springs Fire Department wasn’t going to happen this year until the city provided it with funds from the dedicated marijuana tax. The pot of money is also being used to provide new technology for the Colorado Springs Police Department.
“Voters told us this is what they want, and Colorado Springs is already seeing the benefits of including this industry in our economy. I look forward to working collaboratively with the administration in determining how the next tranche of dollars is allocated,” Councilmember Nancy Henjum said in a statement Friday.
El Paso County has received more than $1 million for its share of the state marijuana sales tax in three of the last five months that have been reported by the Department of Revenue. The county has not received more than $100,000 from the medical marijuana sales tax since January 2025.
Despite the successful year, Zislis said the industry still needed to publicly make the case for continuing retail sales. The Colorado Springs Cannabis Alliance has shifted its focus from legalizing recreational sales to preserving them and getting rid of the unregulated marijuana business.
Hays said the Healing Canna stores were planning to get involved with food drives and projects to benefit the local neighborhoods.
“My hope is that they realize that all those concerns they had, none of them came to be true. It was very clear when getting rec passed that the community spoke out about wanting recreational marijuana,” Hays said.
Reporter
Colorado Springs Gazette is proudly powered by WordPress
Welcome to the Denver Gazette
Subscribe to stay up to date with all things Colorado.
Streak: 9 days i
Stories you’ve missed since your last login:
Stories you’ve saved for later:
Recommended stories based on your interests:
The latest breaking news, delivered straight to your email!
Access all of our premium content, get unlimited digital access and more!
Get real time news updates
Gazette.com
Coloradosprings.com
Gazettepreps.com
Best of the Springs
OutThereColorado.com
© Copyright 2025 The Colorado Springs Gazette, L.L.C., 30 East Pikes Peak Ave., Suite 100 Colorado Springs, CO | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Your Privacy Choices