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Massachusetts retailers have now sold more than $5 billion in adult-use marijuana since the state’s recreational market launched five years ago, regulators announced on Wednesday.
After three consecutive months of record-breaking cannabis sales from June to August, purchases in the state have now amounted to $5.02 billion, according to the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). Sales reached $139.3 million in August alone, with the year-to-date total at $1.05 billion within the first eight months of 2023.
Aside from rising recreational sales, dispensaries have additionally sold more than $1.13 billion worth of medical cannabis products to patients and caregivers since 2018.
Marijuana Establishments in Massachusetts reached another milestone by surpassing $5 billion in gross sales on August 31, coming on the heels of three back-to-back record sales months in June, July, and August. Read more: https://t.co/RmwNGgdXM6
— Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (@MA_Cannabis) September 6, 2023
“Massachusetts continues to hit record sales even as other states have come online. In fact, our neighboring states Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut also had record sales this summer,” CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins said in a press release. “Demand for tested, quality cannabis products remains strong in the region, and consumers shopping in other states have not impacted Massachusetts’s success.”
The state had just reached the $4 billion mark for adult-use sales in January. The fact that it added another $1 billion in eight months makes this “the shortest it’s taken for Massachusetts businesses to generate another $1 billion dollars in gross sales.”
“Since the first two adult-use retail stores on the East Coast opened in November 20, 2018, the pace of hitting the next $1 billion aggregate gross sales milestone has continued to quicken, with each subsequent tally occurring faster than the previous one,” CCC said.
In Massachusetts, state data also showed for the first time last year that the state is generating more tax revenue from marijuana than alcohol.
The record sales are all the more notable given that adult-use markets are coming online and expanding in nearby states like Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Rhode Island, too, which presumably would reduce purchases from out-of-state visitors.
In Maryland, officials recently announced that the the state broke anther marijuana sales record last month, with nearly $92 million worth of cannabis products sold during the state’s second month of legal adult-use sales.
Michigan marijuana sales reached yet another record high in July, with nearly $277 million worth of cannabis sold.
Four Northeastern states—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—also each hit new records for cannabis purchases in July.
Illinois retailers sold $140 million worth of recreational marijuana products in July—the strongest sales of the year and second highest monthly total for the state since the adult-use market launched in 2020.
Missouri retailers have been selling about $4 million worth of marijuana per day on average since the state’s adult-use market opened up in February—and the state saw a record $121.2 million in cannabis purchases in June.
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Meanwhile, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office has determined that a pair of 2024 psychedelics legalization ballot initiatives have met state constitutional requirements, and it’s now releasing final summaries of the measures and allowing activists to begin collecting signatures to qualify them to go before voters next year.
In the legislature, a Republican Massachusetts lawmaker filed three psychedelics reform bills in April, including proposals to legalize substances like psilocybin and reschedule MDMA pending federal approval while setting a price cap on therapeutic access.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
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