Colorado's Marijuana Business Growing Less Than They Could

DENVER (AP) — A new state report shows Colorado's marijuana industry is producing a lot less than it could.

Laws limit how many plants a business can cultivate. According to the annual update released Friday by the marijuana enforcement division of the Department of Revenue, the monthly average for medical marijuana businesses last year ranged from a third to about half of what they could have produced. The division estimates retail cultivation averaged 40 percent or less of the production limit.

State officials say in the report that growers may have been under-reporting as they shifted to a new computer system for tracking inventory.

Mason Tvert, who was instrumental in Colorado's marijuana legalization campaign, says businesses are simply determining how much they can sell, and producing more doesn't make economic sense.