CO Monthly Puff: Colorado Cannabis Average Market Rate Q4 2026

Top Headlines This Month

• ⚖️ Colorado sets Q4 average market rates for marijuana
• 📋 State audit finds gaps in marijuana testing rules
• ⚖️ MED posts vaporizer, solvent bulletins and Craft pesticide advisory
• 📋 Marijuana tax and fee collections climb in August

The Colorado cannabis average market rate for Q4 is out, and it anchors a busy October for the state. The Department of Revenue posted fresh per-pound values for unprocessed retail marijuana running October 1 through December 31, while a state audit put the spotlight on testing gaps and slow safety advisories. Regulators also added vaporizer and solvent testing bulletins alongside a Craft pesticide advisory, and August tax and fee collections ticked up over July.

⚖️ COLORADO: STATE SETS Q4 AVERAGE MARKET RATES FOR UNPROCESSED MARIJUANA

The Colorado Department of Revenue posted the average market rates for unprocessed retail marijuana covering October 1 through December 31, 2026. Retail bud is valued at $601 per pound and retail trim at $204 per pound, while bud allocated for extraction comes in at $425 per pound and trim allocated for extraction at $100 per pound. Wet whole plants are valued at $100 per pound. These figures are median market prices drawn from the Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance system (METRC), and the Department calculates them quarterly using transfer data from the prior three months. Retail marijuana carries a 15% excise tax levied on either the average market rate or the contract price, with the rate generally applied when a cultivation facility transfers product to an affiliated store or manufacturing facility.

Because the rate drives the tax owed on affiliated transfers, the per-pound values set the tax floor for vertically integrated businesses moving flower and trim internally. The Department pulls its dataset from transfers between unaffiliated businesses priced above a penny, so the published medians reflect arm’s-length pricing across the state rather than negotiated internal numbers.

Source:
https://tax.colorado.gov/average-market-rate

📋 COLORADO: STATE AUDIT FINDS GAPS IN MARIJUANA TESTING RULES

A state audit found significant gaps in Colorado’s framework for testing marijuana for contamination and warning consumers about risks, according to Marijuana Moment (published October 20). The review centered on product testing and inconsistent monitoring by the Marijuana Enforcement Division, which sits within the state’s Department of Revenue and licenses cannabis businesses. Auditors did not find evidence of widespread health and safety risks, but audit supervisor Catherine Friday told the Legislative Audit Committee that a combination of factors limits the division’s ability to identify public safety risks and ensure businesses comply with safety requirements. Businesses currently select their own samples and send them to private labs for potency and contaminant testing, while 24 other states with legal marijuana rely on a third party instead. Kyle Lambert, deputy director of the division, said regulators researched the self selection issue but decided against changing it this year, citing the logistics and cost of reaching rural businesses. The audit also found that between 2023 and 2025, potentially harmful products stayed on the market for over seven months on average before the division issued a safety advisory, a timeline that improved in 2025 after regulators revised their guidelines.

The audit included a legislative recommendation to strengthen the state’s reference lab, which is operated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and cannot test for pesticides, residual solvents and mycotoxins. Lab officials estimate they would need about $13 million to expand that capacity, and lawmakers on the audit committee could vote on whether to introduce related legislation next session. The division’s senior director, Dominique Mendiola, said the recommendations will inform a roadmap to build on steps regulators have already taken.

Source:
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/feed/

⚖️ COLORADO: MED POSTS VAPORIZER AND SOLVENT TESTING BULLETINS PLUS CRAFT PESTICIDE ADVISORY

The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division has posted a run of new industry bulletins and health and safety advisories to its public page. Industry Bulletin 26:10, dated October 7, addresses inactive ingredients in vaporizer delivery devices. Industry Bulletin 26:09, issued September 11, 2026, covers the implementation of expanding residual solvents testing requirements. On the safety side, MED published a pesticide health and safety advisory involving Staycon LLC, doing business as Craft, on October 13, following earlier Staycon notices posted across late September and early October. The division’s full set of current rules and advisories sits alongside compliance tips and informational notifications on the MED site.

The Staycon pesticide advisory names a specific licensed source, so any dispensary that stocked affected product has to account for it under the division’s requirements. The solvent testing and vaporizer ingredient bulletins set new lab and formulation expectations that feed directly into what can lawfully reach Colorado retail shelves.

Source:
https://med.colorado.gov/

📋 COLORADO: MARIJUANA TAX AND FEE COLLECTIONS CLIMB IN AUGUST

Colorado collected $19,322,443 in marijuana taxes and licensing fees during August, up from $18,980,768 in July, according to figures carried in The Marijuana Herald’s daily brief (published October 19). The totals combine the taxes paid on retail and medical marijuana sales with the licensing fees the state charges the businesses it regulates, so the figure tracks both consumer demand and the size of the licensed base.

The month to month increase points to steady spending inside Colorado’s state licensed market, with the revenue flowing to the programs the state funds through marijuana receipts. For retailers and investors watching the state, the rise signals that collections held their direction rather than slipping between the two months.

Source:
https://themarijuanaherald.com/feed/

The Bottom Line

October brought Colorado a full slate of market news. The state posted Q4 average market rates for unprocessed marijuana, a legislative audit flagged gaps in testing and slow safety advisories, regulators added vaporizer and solvent bulletins plus a Craft pesticide advisory, and August tax and fee collections rose over July. Together these updates track both the rules shaping the Colorado cannabis market and the money moving through it.