Illinois dispensaries sold nearly $40 million dollars with of cannabis in the first 31 days of recreational cannabis sales, according to new numbers released last week.<\/p>\n
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation\u00a0announced the number<\/a>\u00a0on Feb. 3. Officials said the final total of $39,247,840.83 came from the sale of 972,045 cannabis products at licensed retailers across the state.<\/p>\n The state also said the lion\u2019s share of those sales went to Illinois residents, who purchased over $30 million worth of pot, while those visiting tourist destinations like Chicago or just jumping state lines to escape dated marijuana laws spent almost $9 million.<\/p>\n \u201cA portion of every cannabis sale will be reinvested in communities harmed most by the failed war on drugs,\u201d the state\u2019s report noted.<\/p>\n The office of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the first month of legal cannabis sales was a success, and again emphasized the importance of equity in the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe successful launch of the Illinois\u2019 legal cannabis industry represents new opportunities for\u00a0entrepreneurs and the very communities that have historically been harmed by the failed war on\u00a0drugs,\u201d said Toi Hutchinson, senior advisor for cannabis control to Pritzker. \u201cThe administration is dedicated to providing multiple points of entry into this new industry, from dispensary owners to transporters, to ensure legalization is equitable and accessible for all<\/p>\n Illinoisans.\u201d<\/p>\n So where does that $40 million in first-month legal cannabis sales rank all time among other states that have legalized? Let\u2019s look at Nevada first. The\u00a0Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/a>\u00a0reports that, in September 2017, Nevada officials announced the state had sold $27 million worth of cannabis products. We have some slightly longer periods we can look at too for Nevada, as the Nevada Dispensary Association said the first four months of legal sales from July through October 2017 saw\u00a0$127 million<\/a>\u00a0in sales.<\/p>\n So if Illinois was to keep pace with its first month sales, keeping in mind there hasn\u2019t been enough flower to go around when it transitioned to the legal market, it could hit nearly $160 million in the first four months, blowing Nevada out of the water again.<\/p>\n In Colorado, the state\u2019s dispensaries sold $5 million worth of pot in\u00a0the first week<\/a>. Years later, Colorado ramped up to selling $119 million in the month of January 2018. But that would be the last month that Colorado served as the state selling the most pot per month in America.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because California\u2019s adult-use cannabis market came online in January 2018 and conducted $114 million in sales, according to\u00a0BDS Analytics<\/a>. By February 2018, California would be the largest legal marketplace in the world and never look back. (Of course, these numbers only reflect the legal market, and experts estimate that California\u2019s traditional underground cannabis market is still worth three times that of the legal one.)<\/p>\n So while Illinois may have not had as big a start as the more populous California, it was plenty reputable. Plus, they have a bunch of other cool stuff going on.<\/p>\n Recently, the\u00a0Illinois Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0started the application process for cannabis\u00a0infusers, craft growers and transporter licenses. They\u2019ll start taking them on Valentine\u2019s Day and people will have a month to get them in.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial equity applicants will receive additional points on their application and are eligible to\u00a0receive technical assistance, grants, low-interest loans and fee reductions and waivers,\u201d the state noted.<\/p>\n Illinois equity-centric plan for marijuana legalization has long been considered one of\u00a0the most progressive approaches<\/a>\u00a0to fight off the damage done by the War on Drugs to communities of color. One of the most important parts of the program is there will be money to support entrepreneurs from those impacted communities, which is currently an issue with a lot of equity programs in other places.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a comparison of each state with legal cannabis sales, in order of when they opened up for sales, and how much they earned:<\/p>\n Colorado, January 2014:\u00a0$14 million<\/a>\u00a0($46.6 million including medical marijuana)<\/p>\n Washington, July 2014:\u00a0$3.2 million<\/a><\/p>\n Oregon, January 2016:\u00a0$13.9 million<\/a><\/p>\n Alaska, October 2016:\u00a0$750,581<\/a>\u00a0(for first five weeks)<\/p>\n Nevada, September 2017: $27 million<\/p>\n California, January 2018: $114 million<\/p>\n Massachusetts, November 2018:\u00a0$9.3 million<\/a><\/p>\n Michigan, December 2019:\u00a0$6.5 million<\/a><\/p>\n Illinois, January 2020: $40 million<\/p>\n Both Vermont and Maine have legalized adult-use cannabis, but do not have adult-use cannabis marketplaces set up yet.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0what do you think cannabis taxes should be used for?<\/p>\n The post How Much Cannabis Each State Sold in First Month of Legal Sales<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Illinois dispensaries sold nearly $40 million dollars with of cannabis in the first 31 days of recreational cannabis sales, according to new numbers released last week. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation\u00a0announced the number\u00a0on Feb. 3. Officials said the final total of $39,247,840.83 came from the sale ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[403,148,50,21,170,1051,65,25,179,26,185,98],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41185,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41184\/revisions\/41185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: How Much Cannabis Each State Sold in First Month of Legal Sales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"