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Oregon’s struggling cannabis industry endured another difficult year in 2023, and there’s no indication conditions will ease in the foreseeable future.
Prices remain severely depressed, under $4 a gram for 11 consecutive months. Sales fell by nearly 4% last year. And harvests remain elevated, which means supply is likely to continue outstripping demand – making life tough for those who grow and sell recreational marijuana.
“Given these market conditions of oversupply, (retail) saturation, and stable consumer demand, low prices make it difficult for businesses to be profitable,” the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis wrote in its most recent report this month.
The market bloomed in the first years after Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. Sales began in 2015 and climbed for four subsequent years, with a jump that brought sales above $1 billion for the first time in 2020 as people embraced new forms of entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sales fell sharply in 2022 and 2023, dropping by 19% as market conditions returned to more normal patterns. But since Oregon put no limits on how many businesses may grow or sell cannabis, and since marijuana grows like a weed — so to speak — in many parts of Oregon, the state quickly had a cannabis glut.
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