Pot sales in Massachusetts hit $152 million last month, $4.74 billion since 2018

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) recently released a report on its latest recreational cannabis sales data. In June, the state raised $132.8 million in recreational cannabis sales (the highest monthly amount for 2023 to date) and $19 million in medicinal cannabis sales. Since the beginning of state cannabis sales for adult use in November 2018, a total of US$4.74 billion has been achieved in adult use cannabis sales.

Flower is by far the most common strain, with sales exceeding $2.9 billion as of 2018, according to a chart showing the popularity of certain cannabis products. It’s followed by vaping products ($857 million), edibles ($685 million), and pre-cannabis products. Buns ($622 million) and Concentrates ($367 million).

The report also includes crop cultivation activity, which was updated on July 7 but only reflects crop data up to April 2023. To date, a total of 3,400 plants have been harvested, with 983 plants destroyed (but the reasons for this have not been given).

The state is still working to regulate both cannabis use and the use of other substances such as psilocybin. While the 2016 state vote that legalized cannabis laid the groundwork for licensed cannabis cafes, regulators have yet to agree on how to deal with consumption lounges. In May, Massachusetts regulators vetoed a pilot program that would have tested social cannabis cafes in 12 communities.

However, some cities like Salem, Massachusetts became the sixth city in the state to end arrests for psilocybin possession. Advocacy groups like Bay Staters for Natural Medicine are working to drive this change in other cities, including Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton, Easthampton and Amherst. Separately, a Massachusetts-based company, Temescal Wellness, also recently caused a stir for being one of the first cannabis companies to make April 20th a paid holiday for its employees.

Record sales in Massachusetts reflect growing demand for cannabis in the eastern United States, as well as other states that are also seeing success or establishing their own legal cannabis industries. Its southern neighbor Connecticut also saw record sales, posting sales of more than $23 million in May. In June, Connecticut also officially introduced legal home growing, which allows adults under state law to grow up to six plants at home.

The legal cannabis industry in Maryland recently took off on July 1st and raised more than $20 million in its first week. Vermont last reported high sales of $6.4 million in February.

Recreational cannabis sales in Maine began in 2020, but in January the state announced it had raised $158.9 million in 2022, almost double the amount raised in 2021 . However, more recent reports show that more than 1,300 caregivers have left the state’s medical cannabis program since recreational legalization began.

New Hampshire lawmakers recently rejected a cannabis legalization bill (resulting in a congressman switching from the Republican to the Independent party), but the state recently expanded access to medicinal cannabis to outsiders, including both US citizens as well as Canadians. Rhode Island is also slowly but surely making its way into the future by officially transitioning from paper applications to digital for medical cannabis. Not to mention how quickly New York is opening new cannabis dispensaries in the face of an oversupply of cannabis flower.