Report: Americans Are Celebrating Traditional Holidays With Cannabis, Spend Millions Doing So

Cannabis enterprise software company Akerna KERN announced Thursday the top five sales days for the cannabis industry in 2021. Sales have far outpaced the previous year and there's no sign of slowing down.

2021 U.S. Top Cannabis Sales Days:

• 420/April 20: $111.8 million (the largest day for legal cannabis sales ever)
• Black Friday/Nov. 26: $99 million
• Green Wednesday/November 24: $98.2 million
• Thursday before Christmas/Dec. 23: $94 million
• Friday before Labor Day/Sept. 3: $90.1 million

What A Difference A Year Makes

2020’s largest sales day, according to Akerna’s cutting edge data, was New Year’s Eve, when cannabis brought in $89.4 million — a number that would not even make it onto this year’s top five list. When comparing 2020’s top cannabis sales day (New Year’s Eve) to 2021’s top day (420), there was a 25% increase in sales. 

Even during a pandemic, the cannabis industry experienced massive sales in 2020, increasing even more in 2021.

One thing that is clear from this list: U.S. consumers are choosing to celebrate their holidays with cannabis. 

"With $118 million spent on April 20th, we saw the largest cannabis sales day ever in the U.S. last year when cannabis consumers headed to dispensaries to purchase products in celebration of 420, the unofficial cannabis consumption holiday," Jessica Billingsley, Akerna CEO and chair of the U.S. Cannabis Council told Benzinga. 

"But it wasn't just 420 — take a look at all of the dates on the top cannabis sales days of 2021. It's clear that Americans like to celebrate with cannabis."

Cannabis Sales Competing With Alcohol

Recreational cannabis is a new competitor for alcoholic beverages as legalization spreads across the country. As adult-use marijuana became legal in numerous states these past several years, data published by the Cannabis Drinks Expo estimated that the average sales of wine decreased by 16.2%, while beer sales dropped 13.8%.

In some states, cannabis taxes are exceeding liquor taxes, which is the case in Illinois where, in the first three months of 2021, marijuana tax revenue amounted to $86,537,000 in the last quarter versus $72,281,000 from alcohol sales, according to the state Department of Revenue.

All this is happening as the U.S. cannabis market is predicted to reach $45.8 billion in sales by 2025.

Yes, it does appear that Americans indeed like to celebrate with cannabis.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels.