Marijuana sales overtake alcohol in US city for first time
Friday 9 February 2018
Licensed vendors in Rocky Mountains ski resort Aspen made $11.3m (£8.2m) from selling cannabis in 2017
Sales of marijuana have overtaken alcohol in a city in Colorado, three years after the state became the first in the US to legalise recreational use of the drug.
Licensed vendors in the ski resort of Aspen raked in $11.3m (£8.2m) income from cannabis last year, compared to $10.5m (£7.6m) brought in by off-licences.
It is believed to be the first time legal marijuana sales have eclipsed those of alcohol anywhere in the US.
The US state growing three times more cannabis than it can consume
Aspen’s first cannabis shop opened in March 2014, three months after legislation for taxing and regulating sales came into force across Colorado. By the next year the resort, which has a population of less than 7,000, had seven licensed distributors.