Illinois cannabis sales doubled in 2021

The first year of legal cannabis sales in Illinois was a complete success, but it turned out that the second year was even better.

Twice as good, in fact.

A report from the grimly-named Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) showed that adult cannabis sales in 2021 were $ 1,379,088,278.61 – more than double sales from the opening year in the year 2020 that was roughly $ 669 million.

The numbers released by IDFPR provide information about the amount of cannabis products sold and when customers bought them.

The biggest month for pot sales of 2021 came very late of the year, with sales of $ 137,896,859.11 in December. This was also the case in 2020, when cannabis sales valued at $ 86,857,898.27 made December the busiest month for sales of the year.

The IDFPR report also indicates the source of the money. Last year, $ 943,013,285.67 of cannabis sales came from Illinois residents, while $ 436,176,093.93 came from non-state residents.

A total of 30,342,937 cannabis items were sold last year, compared to 14,485,704 in 2020.

The Illinois recreational cannabis market opened to trading on New Year’s Day 2020, a milestone hit with long lines at newly opened state pharmacies. The first day of sales alone raised more than $ 3 million, and many stores ran out of weed on opening week.

The numbers continued to rise, giving the government of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who signed the Recreational Cannabis Legalization Act in 2019, a reason to race a winning lap.

In June 2020, Pritzker’s then senior cannabis control advisor Toi Hutchinson, who has since been hired as President and CEO of the Marijuana Policy Project, said that the “successful start of the legal cannabis industry in Illinois opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurs and the very” communities living in the Past were harmed by the failed war on drugs. ”

“The government is committed to providing multiple entry points into this new industry, from pharmacy owners to transportation companies, to ensure legalization is fair and accessible to all Illinois people,” said Hutchinson.

To that end, the economy was just one facet of Illinois’ new marijuana law. As with other states that have legalized cannabis, there has been a concerted effort by policymakers to redress previous convictions of marijuana offenders.

When Illinois legalization went into effect, Pritzker heralded the occasion with more than 11,000 pardons for nonviolent cannabis offenders.

“We end the 50-year war against cannabis,” said Pritzker at the time. “We’re giving rights back to tens of thousands of Illinois people. We are bringing regulation and security into a previously insecure and illegal market. And we’re creating a new industry that focuses on equity. “

Pritzker did the same to start 2021, issuing more than 9,000 pardons for low-level cannabis offenders and overturning more than 490,000 cannabis arrests.

“Nationwide, Illinois residents keep hundreds of thousands of records regarding low-level cannabis, a burden disproportionately borne by colored communities,” Pritzker said in a statement released at the time. “We will never be able to fully repair the depth of this damage. But we can rule with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past – and with the decency to take a better path forward. “

While most other states have legalized cannabis through the electoral process, Illinois was the first to do so through legislature in 2019, which Pritzker announced at the time the bill was signed.

“As the first state in the nation to fully legalize adult cannabis use through its legislative process, Illinois exemplifies the best of democracy: a bipartisan and deep commitment to improving the lives of all of our citizens,” said Pritzker.

“Legalizing adult cannabis is bringing about an important and long overdue change in our state, and it is the right thing to do. This legislation will erase the cannabis-related records of nonviolent offenders through an efficient combination of automatic deletion, gubernatorial pardon, and individual judicial proceedings. I am so proud that our state is leading its approach to legalizing cannabis and its regulatory framework with justice and justice. Because of the work of the people here and many others across our state, Illinois moves forward with empathy and hope. “