Colorado Senate Committee Kills Bill to Overhaul Marijuana Taxes and Testing Rules
- The proposal to replace Colorado’s 15% retail marijuana sales tax with a potency-based tax was indefinitely postponed and is dead for the year.
- Senate Bill 161 aimed to tax edible marijuana products at 1.2 cents per milligram of intoxicating cannabinoids and inhaled products at 0.4 cents per milligram.
- The bill planned to reduce the retail marijuana excise tax to $1 per pound of unprocessed marijuana starting in 2027 and shift testing and safety oversight to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
- Additional measures included establishing statewide off-shelf surveillance testing for retail products and requiring marijuana producers to register with the health department by mid-2027.
A proposal to overhaul Colorado’s marijuana tax structure, including replacing the retail sales tax with a potency-based tax rate, is officially dead for the year.
The Senate Finance Committee voted today to indefinitely postpone Senate Bill 161, effectively killing the measure less than two weeks after it was introduced. The vote was 8 to 0, with one member absent.
The bill, sponsored by State Senators Kyle Mullica (D) and Marc Snyder (D), would have replaced Colorado’s current 15% retail marijuana sales tax with a new potency-based tax tied to the amount of intoxicating cannabinoids in a product.
Under the proposal, edible marijuana products would have been taxed at 1.2 cents per milligram of total intoxicating cannabinoids. Inhaled marijuana products made with concentrate, products made with marijuana flower and other intoxicating cannabis products would have been taxed at 0.4 cents per milligram.
The measure also would have reduced the state’s retail marijuana excise tax to $1 per pound of unprocessed retail marijuana beginning January 1, 2027.
Beyond taxes, Senate Bill 161 would have moved several testing and safety responsibilities from the Department of Revenue to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. That would have included setting testing standards, overseeing product safety and creating a new reference laboratory for intoxicating cannabis products.
The bill also called for a statewide off-shelf surveillance testing system for products packaged for retail sale, while requiring marijuana product producers to register with the health department beginning July 1, 2027.