Illinois retailers offered greater than $135 million value of adult-use marijuana in July, the biggest month-to-month gross sales whole to this point in 2022 and the second greatest month since gross sales first launched, the Illinois Division of Finance and Skilled Regulation (IDFPR) introduced on Wednesday.
Whereas the July gross sales determine remains to be about $2 million lower than the state’s December 2021 peak, it’s a large month-to-month whole throughout a yr that noticed hashish purchases lag over the primary few months.
Illinois marijuana retailers offered 3,251,062 hashish merchandise value a collective $135,658,291 in July. About $92 million in marijuana gross sales got here from in-state residents, whereas $44 million was bought by out-of-state guests.
Through IDFPR.
Apparently, whereas the July gross sales numbers are considerably decrease than the December 2021 whole, extra particular person hashish objects have been offered final month than in December. That might sign creating traits, comparable to shifts in marijuana pricing or evolving client preferences for sure merchandise.
Medical hashish gross sales figures are reported individually by a unique state company, and aren’t accounted for within the new leisure information.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) lately touted the state’s marijuana gross sales and ensuing tax income for the 2022 Fiscal Yr. Illinois collected $445.3 million in tax {dollars} from $1.5 billion in hashish gross sales throughout that interval. That’s a 50 p.c enhance is hashish tax {dollars} in comparison with the prior fiscal yr.
Native governments acquired $146.2 in hashish tax disbursements within the newest fiscal yr, up 77 p.c from the prior yr.
Whereas 2022 leisure marijuana gross sales have been usually steady because the December peak, that pattern might change demonstrably since officers permitted new social fairness marijuana retailer licenses final month, representing what can be a major growth within the variety of dispensaries as soon as these companies change into operational.
The governor and different state officers have emphasised that they’re dedicated to making sure that parts of tax income from the marijuana market go towards group reinvestment, as prescribed below the state’s legalization regulation.
In June, Illinois officers introduced that the state is awarding $45 million in grants funded by marijuana tax {dollars} to help group reinvestment in areas “hardest hit by the failed battle on medicine.”
That marks the second spherical of funding that’s being made out there by means of the state’s Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) program, which was established below Illinois’s adult-use hashish legalization regulation.
Final yr, state officers additionally put $3.5 million in cannabis-generated funds towards efforts to scale back violence by means of avenue intervention packages.
From final yr’s gross sales, Illinois generated virtually $100 million extra in tax income from adult-use marijuana gross sales than from alcohol in 2021, state information discovered.
Whereas state officers have constantly voiced their dedication to fairness, legalization’s rollout hasn’t been with out hiccups and frustration amongst would-be licensees. Illinois regulators have confronted authorized challenges over the way in which social fairness licensing functions have been managed, with complaints concerning the lottery system that the state later stated it could work to resolve.
A court docket order prohibited the state from approving extra leisure hashish retailers for almost a yr earlier than that call was lifted in Might. With the ban eliminated, officers introduced late final month that they accepted new marijuana retailer licenses for social fairness candidates.
Along with offering group reinvestment funding, the governor introduced in 2020 that his workplace had processed greater than 500,000 expungements and pardons for individuals with low-level hashish convictions on their information.
Pritzker additionally lately signed a invoice that can make it so courts can’t deny petitions to expunge or seal information based mostly on a constructive drug take a look at for marijuana.
A state-funded initiative was additionally lately established to assist residents with marijuana convictions get authorized help and different companies to have their information expunged.
It’s most of these initiatives that Toi Hutchinson lately advised Marijuana Second that she’s most pleased with as she transitioned from being Pritzker’s hashish advisor to the president of the nationwide advocacy group, the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking (MPP).