Bank Of America Looks At Colorado Sales In Monthly Cannabis Tracker

Bank of America has launched a monthly U.S. cannabis tracker that utilizes data from BDS Analytics, in which it will analyze trends in dollars, price/mix, volume and share. Analyst Christopher Carey broke down the first iterations of the tracker.

Considering the fact that more and more U.S. states push for the legalization of recreational cannabis use, Bank of America thinks federal legalization is imminent. What’s more, Carey believes the story doesn’t end with just U.S. and Canada -- Mexico is likely to complete legalization in 2020, which may push other countries to reexamine their adult-use cannabis laws.

“In this context, understanding what happens in the US, where legal adult use markets have existed for almost six years, is more relevant than a simple US analysis; rather, it informs how to think about (and model) legal markets yet to be,” Carey wrote in a note.

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In this first iteration of BofA's U.S. tracker, Carey discusses tracking key metrics in Colorado, planning to add other states in next updates.

According to the data, Colorado retail sales in October experienced growth of 22% year-over-year, mostly driven by inhalables, and ingestibles. Inhalable cannabis, which includes flower, concentrates and pre-rolls, accounted for the biggest part of the state’s cannabis market in October, with an 81.7% share.

In spite of the impressive year-over-year growth, Colorado retail sales in October were down 2%, which BofA attributed to normal and in-line seasonality in the state.