Due to a long list of factors that we’ve been banging the drum about for years now, marijuana sales are having trouble across the country.
The first sign of this comes from Washington state, where sales have declined for the 5th year in a row.
$277 million of cannabis was sold in the first quarter of this year, which is almost $100 million less than its peak in 2021. If it continues at this level, this will be the lowest year of sales since 2019. As a comparison, alcohol sales have remained pretty unchanged in this same period.
Then, there’s Arizona. Sales are down for the second quarter in a row. The $298 million total in the second quarter was 13.7% under what it was last year, about $30 million less.
This has been the trend in the state. Each year since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2021, marijuana sales have been going down, from $1.42 billion in 2022, to $1.37 billion in 2023, to $1.25 billion in 2024.
The main reason seems to be the same in both states: oversupply. This has brought prices down across the board. The high taxes on legal weed is also a factor, which pushes some people away to the much discounted black market.
Read the story on Washington here, and the story on Arizona here.
