Illinois marijuana retailers set new month-to-month gross sales data to shut out 2023, promoting $181.8 million price of hashish merchandise throughout December, together with a file $153.9 million in adult-use purchases. Gross sales of medical marijuana in December had been at their highest since April, at $27.9 million.
All instructed, authorized hashish gross sales for 2023 set a brand new annual file, reaching slightly below $2 billion, together with greater than $1.6 billion from the state’s adult-use market, which launched 4 years in the past.
Leisure marijuana gross sales generated $417.6 million in tax income for the state in 2023, in keeping with the Illinois Division of Income.
“From day one, my administration has put fairness first to construct essentially the most accessible hashish trade within the nation,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) stated in a press launch saying the fiscal knowledge on Thursday. “Our work will proceed to restore previous hurt whereas offering alternatives for communities throughout the state and making a extra affluent future.”
“The legalization of grownup use hashish was the beginning of uplifting the communities most impacted by the failed warfare on medicine,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) said. “The advantages from these gross sales will probably be used to proceed investing in our financial development in traditionally disinvested populations.”
The brand new records come after a extra minor one set in November: the most-ever marijuana gross sales to in-state residents, as reported by the Illinois Division of Monetary and Skilled Regulation (IDFPR). Final month’s new numbers set one more file for purchases from state residents, coming in at $117.9 million.
Customers bought 4,213,747 particular person adult-use marijuana merchandise in December, additionally a brand new month-to-month file. In all of 2023, 42,124,741 gadgets had been bought in Illinois leisure hashish dispensaries.
By way of medical marijuana, simply over half of whole gross sales (53.7 %) for December got here from concentrates or infused merchandise, at $15.0 million. Flower made up 46.3 % of whole gross sales, at $12.9 million.
In the meantime, total medical marijuana gross sales have additionally totaled almost $2 billion since dispensaries opened in November 2015.
In an annual report from October about fiscal 12 months 2023, which ended June 30 of final 12 months, state officers stated that state-legal marijuana gross sales had seen “unprecedented” development, with the opening of 28 new retailers and greater than $1.5 billion in whole recorded retail gross sales.
By way of state income, the authorized hashish trade introduced in about $451.9 million for Illinois in fiscal 12 months 2023, in keeping with separate numbers from the Division of Income. As in previous years, Illinois made considerably extra income from hashish than from alcohol, which introduced in about $316.3 million throughout the identical interval.
Over all the fiscal 12 months, 200 conditional licenses had been issued. In December 2022, the division additionally finalized guidelines for a brand new Social Fairness Standards Lottery, aimed toward prioritizing individuals who have been disproportionately impacted by the warfare on medicine. Greater than 2,600 people utilized for 55 new social fairness dispensary licenses.
The overwhelming majority of newly issued licenses had been in Prepare dinner County, the state’s most populous.
One other latest report, from the state’s Hashish Regulation Oversight Officer, indicated that variety numbers within the marijuana trade are up considerably since adult-use gross sales started—an indication that efforts in recent times to prioritize social fairness license candidates is making a measurable affect.
When leisure marijuana gross sales started in 2020, the “preliminary companies had been 100% majority White owned and just one majority woman-owned companies,” stated the workplace’s variety survey report. Since then, measures of variety have improved markedly.
Among the many key adjustments, Black-owned corporations elevated from 0 % to 27 % of the market through the interval from 2020 to 2023, whereas Latino/a or Hispanic-owned corporations climbed from 0 % to five %. Asian-owned corporations, went from 0 % to three %. Ladies-owned companies, in the meantime, now make up 16 % of licensed hashish corporations.
Small craft hashish growers, nevertheless, are reportedly struggling regardless of tens of millions in state help.
Whereas data point out that Illinois shoppers are paying significantly greater than hashish purchasers in lots of different authorized states, Pritzker lately downplayed the steep costs, noting the trade’s regular development and appreciable gross sales to out-of-state residents.
Final month, the governor additionally signed a invoice into regulation waiving utility charges for present marijuana transporter organizations till January 1, 2027.