According to the Cannabis Control Commission, Massachusetts marijuana retailers have sold $158.7 millions worth of legal cannabis in December. This brings the total sales recorded for the state to $1.8 billion.
More than 87 percent of that total annual sales came from adult-use, which amounted to almost $1.57 billion in 2017. In 2023, medical marijuana sales will total about $226 millions.
The record sales of adults in December, which totaled $140.0 million, are largely to blame for the monthly record. Medical marijuana sales were also higher than they have been in recent months at $18.6 millions. However, this market has generally been flat or declining for the last year, ranging between $17 and $20 million per month.
Since opening their doors in late 2018, adult-use retailers have sold more than $5.54 Billion in total since the beginning of 2023. The cumulative medical marijuana sales over the same time period totaled $1.20 billion.
data indicate that medical marijuana sales are generally on the decline since the legalization of adult sales. This trend is also seen in other states as more patients choose to purchase cannabis from adult-use retailers, or grow their own.
Adult-use sales also had a good year. This helped the state to set monthly records by mid-2023, before hitting another high in 2023.
Medical marijuana is exempt from state tax. However, adult-use products are subject to an excise tax of 10.75 percent in addition to the 6.25 percent state sales tax. Municipalities may add an additional 3 percent tax.
Data from the state showed that for the first year in 2022, generated more tax revenue than alcohol.
In the Bay State, legislators are considering changing laws surrounding psychedelics.
In early April, officials confirmed that activists submitted enough valid signatures to force the legislature to consider a psychedelics-legalization initiative. The measure could then be placed on the ballot in 2024. The proposal was then officially sent to the legislature.
This measure would establish a framework that allows for lawful, supervised access to psychedelics in licensed facilities. The measure would legalize possession and gifting psychedelics like psilocybin or ayahuasca. However, it would not allow for retail commercial sales.
The legislature can now choose to either enact this reform or propose an alternative, or to decline to act. If lawmakers do not legalize psychedelics before May 1, activists will have until July 3, 2019 to collect at least 12,429 valid signatures in order to place the proposal on the ballot for November 2024.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Shealey (D), recently introduced legislation which includes provisions to Create a psychedelics Working Group to Study and Make Recommendations About the Potential Therapeutic Benefits of Substances like Psilocybin or MDMA for Military Veterans.
Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, a psychedelics reform organization, has worked to implement local policies that deprioritize the enforcement of laws prohibiting psychedelics. This was done in six cities, including Salem, Somerville Cambridge, Easthampton Northampton Amherst Provincetown.
Separately in Massachusetts, a Republican legislator introduced three reform bills in April . These included proposals to legalize substances such as psilocybin, and reschedule MDMA while waiting for federal approval, with a price limit on therapeutic access.
Other legislators have introduced several pieces of legislation in Massachusetts to legalize psychedelics for adults, including separate measures.
A second bill would allow the Department of Public Health (DPH) to conduct an extensive study on the therapeutic potential of synthetic psychedelics such as MDMA.
Rep. Mike Connolly, (D), also filed a 2021 bill that was heard by the Joint Judiciary Committee in . The hearing focused on the implications of legalizing substances such as psilocybin or ayahuasca.
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