Since recreational sales began in January 2021, the cannabis industry generated over $4 billion. About $2.5 billion of that was from sales.
By David Abbott, Arizona Mirror
In September, cannabis sales in Arizona surpassed the $1 billion mark. The medical and recreational markets have continued to follow a familiar pattern which has appeared to be solidifying over the last few months.
The Arizona Department of Revenue’s (ADOR) data for August and September shows that the medical sales are still about one-third of the adult-use recreational sales. This trend has continued throughout the year, and led to the lowest ever medical sales figures.
In September, medical sales were a little less than $27million. This is a slight drop from the $28.7million in August. The latest total represents a low in medical sales, since the competition with recreational programs began in January 2021.
Since June 2022 the medical market’s sales have not exceeded $40 million. Since a peak in April 2021 of $73.4 millions, medical sales have been declining steadily.
Since May, when recreational sales fell below $90 millions, they have risen to more than $80 Millions. This is after set a record market of $100,000,000 in March. ADOR reports recreational sales of $85.8 in August, and a little over $80 in September.
Since March 2022 when the recreational market first passed the $80m threshold, it only missed that mark twice. Once in May 2022 with $79.3m and once in June 2022 with $77.2m.
These numbers could change as ADOR adjusts the numbers for recent months with each report. ADOR reported initially that July medical sales were $26.1m, but in the latest release, that number was increased to $27.3m. Recreational sales were originally estimated at $77.4m, but are now pegged to $80.5m.
In 2023, Arizonans purchased recreational marijuana worth nearly $797 millions, bringing the total to almost $1.1 billion. Since recreational sales began in January 2021, the cannabis market has generated over $4 billion. About $2.5 billion of that total comes from recreational sales.
In October 2021, medical and recreational sales were almost equal. Adult-use sales totaled $65,8 million while medical sales were only $64.4 million. This was the first time that recreational sales exceeded medical sales.
In August and September, the state collected taxes of $2.4 million, $2.2 million, and $13.7 millions, respectively.
Medical patients pay approximately 6 percent state sales tax. Local jurisdictions charge a 2 percent additional tax for all marijuana sales.
In 2023, the excise tax collected on sales of adult-use marijuana has generated about $174.5 millions. In 2021, sales of recreational cannabis for 11 months generated $32.9 millions. By 2022, that figure jumped to $132.8million. Since the program’s launch, the state has collected over $391 million in marijuana taxes.
One third of these taxes is dedicated to community colleges and provisional district community colleges; 31 percent goes to public safety including police, fire department, fire districts, and first responders, 25 percent goes to the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund, and 10 percent goes to the Justice Reinvestment Fund, which provides public health services, job training, counseling and other social services to communities who have been negatively affected by marijuana arrests.
Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) reports monthly on the medical cannabis program and is usually two to three months ahead of ADOR.
In October, there were only 121,047 cardholders who met the criteria, compared to 123,796 patients in September. In January 2021, when the medical market was at its peak, 299,054 patients were eligible. This was before recreational sales.
In October, Arizona’s medical cannabis users purchased 4,474.75 lbs of marijuana in different forms, down from the 4,621,28 lbs reported in September. The total for the year up to October was 47,075.6 lbs.
Arizona Mirror was the first to publish this story.
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The article Arizona Marijuana sales passed $1 billion mark for 2023 in September, new data shows first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
