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Massachusetts reached a new marijuana sales milestone leading up to 4/20 last week, with the state crossing the $6 billion mark since the adult-use market launched, regulators announced. And the state broke a single-day sales record on the holiday itself, with $8.5 million in sales.
As of last Wednesday, Massachusetts logged $6,003,985,070 in recreational cannabis purchases. It was only last September that the state exceeded $5 billion in sales, meaning this is “the shortest it’s taken for Massachusetts businesses to generate another $1 billion dollars in gross sales,” the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) said on Wednesday.
“I continue to be encouraged by these sales milestones because they show that the industry is strong and efficiently regulated, both spurring economic development and critical tax revenue for the Commonwealth and providing safe, tested products for consumers and patients alike,” Ava Callender Concepcion, acting chair of CCC, said in a press release.
“With a wave of new statutory and regulatory changes beginning to take shape in Massachusetts, I’m confident that our industry is well-positioned to continue adapting, expanding, and creating more equity-driven pathways for individuals pursuing their entrepreneurial and career aspirations,” she said.
The new data comes one month after regulators announced that licensed medical and adult-use retailers had sold more than $7 billion in marijuana combined. That total is now at about $7.3 billion.
These market trends come as the price of marijuana in Massachusetts continues to fall—from a high of nearly $15 per gram of flower when stores first open to almost $5 per gram this year.
This past December, the state set a new monthly sales record of $158.7 million worth of legal cannabis products, according to CCC figures—bringing the state’s total recorded sales for 2023 to nearly $1.8 billion.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts officials are also exploring how to regulate THC-infused hemp products that are sold in liquor stores and smoke shops, with lawmakers recently holding a hearing on the matter.
A workforce development program that receives federal funds also recently warned partners that it’s restricted from using those resources to aid the state-legal marijuana industry—though it can use the money to provide services to the hemp industry, which is federally legal.
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Earlier this month, Massachusetts officials unanimously approved the governor’s recent proposal to pardon thousands of people with misdemeanor marijuana convictions of their records.
Also, a joint legislative committee held a hearing last month to discuss an initiative that would legalize psychedelics that may appear on the November ballot if lawmakers decline to independently enact it first.
The governor also filed a bill last year to create a psychedelics working group to study and make recommendations about the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like psilocybin and MDMA for military veterans.
Photo courtesy of WeedPornDaily.
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