Cannabis Sales Soaring, Illinois and Massachusetts Break Records

Adult-use marijuana sales in Illinois exceeded $120 million in August, state officials reported on Thursday. Illinois saw $121,933,542 in cannabis purchases last month, with $81,275,830 coming from in-state residents and $40,657,711 from out-of-state visitors, in particular, from neighboring states that do not have a legal market, reported Marijuana Moment. 

If the trend continues, Illinois is on track to see more than $1 billion in adult-use marijuana sales in 2021.

Amid a huge budget deficit, the state generated more than $86 million from adult-use marijuana tax revenue between January and March 2021 and has repeatedly broken its own monthly cannabis sales records, hitting $28 million in March alone.

Adults spent almost $110 million on recreational cannabis products during March (more tax dollars from marijuana receipts than alcohol for the first time ever), reported Newsweek.

Illinois officials have emphasized that the tax dollars from all of these sales are being distributed. $31.5 million were allocated in grants funded by marijuana tax dollars to communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

Massachusetts Not Doing Badly Either: $844 Million Since January

Marijuana sales in Massachusetts have topped $2 billion since the state’s adult-use market launched in late 2018, the Cannabis Control Commission reported on Wednesday.

Gross sales from the state’s 165 cannabis retailers and three delivery services reached 

over $2 billion as of August 31.

That doubles the sales total that the commission reported last November.

Despite being closed for two months in 2020 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, 91 marijuana retailers generated a total of $702 million for the full calendar year of 2020.

As of the start of business on Wednesday, September 1, the Commission reported licensees have generated $844 million since January 1st, already making 2021 a record sales year.

The adult-use cannabis industry in Massachusetts consists of nearly 16,667 active marijuana establishment agent registrations: 35.4 % identify as female and 64.1 % identify as male, while 72.4 % identify as White, 7.6 % identify as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish, and 6 % identify as Black or African American.