Recreational Marijuana Sales Shatter Previous Record In July
CHICAGO — Pot purchasers in Illinois spent more cash last month on legal recreational weed than out-of-state residents spent at the state's dispensaries in the entire first half of the state's first year of taxing and regulating weed.
Pre-tax sales figures released Monday by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation show July sales rose by 28 percent from the prior month to set a new monthly revenue record for the third consecutive month.
Customers bought nearly $61 million worth of adult-use cannabis in July, picking up more than 1.2 million items containing THC at the state's dispensaries.
Gov. JB Pritzker last month said the state collected more than $50 million in tax revenue from adult use cannabis for the fiscal year ending June 30. That does not count the nearly $14 million in taxes the Illinois Department of Revenue collected from June sales, which is included in the 2021 Fiscal Year.
Including taxes, consumers of Illinois cannabis have spent an estimated $380 million so far this year on weed through Friday.
The governor said a portion of every dollar people spent on pot will be invested in communities that have historically suffered from a lack of investment.
"Illinois has done more to put justice and equity at the forefront of this industry than any other state in the nation," Pritzker said in a statement, "and we're ensuring that communities that have been hurt by the war on drugs have the opportunity to participate."
The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act was the nation's first retail recreational marijuana legalization scheme adopted by a vote of state lawmakers rather than the public. It included programs for expungement of cannabis offenses, grants to underserved areas and set up criteria for "social equity applicants" to receive preference in licensing.
However, Pritzker has halted the release of licenses that incorporate social equity scoring via an executive order in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Later, he also delayed the issuance of licenses for craft growers, infusers and transporters.
No date has been set for new licenses to be issued, allowing the deep-pocketed medical marijuana licenseholders who the legalization bill exclusively granted licenses to continue their monopoly of the market.
As of Tuesday, there are 62 retail locations licensed by the state to sell recreational marijuana. More than 150 additional businesses — including social equity applicants — would have been set to receive licenses from the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation by the start of last month had Pritzker not halted their issuance. The governor's cannabis czar has not responded to an inquiry about the timeline for state regulators to award additional licenses.
[RECIRC]
Earlier: Illinois Recreational Marijuana Sales Set New Record In June
This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch
