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Tag: Illinois

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How Much Legal Cannabis Did Illinois Sell In 2020?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

Currently, 15 states in the U.S. have legalized cannabis for adult-use along with Washington D.C. Some of those states already have legal adult-use cannabis sales underway, while others, mostly the 2020 class of states, have yet to launch legal sales.

The first state in the history of the United States to legalize adult-use cannabis sales by legislative action was Illinois. Every other state that legalized cannabis before Illinois, with the exception of Vermont, legalized cannabis via the ballot box.

In the case of Vermont, lawmakers passed a legalization measure, however, the measure did not legalize regulated adult-use cannabis sales – just possession and cultivation.

Illinois just wrapped up its first year of adult-use cannabis sales, and the year-end totals are staggering. Per Chicago Tribune:

The year 2020 dawned with thousands of people lined up, some overnight, waiting to be among the first to buy legal recreational marijuana in Illinois.

As the long, strange year comes to an end, people are lined up at food banks, to get coronavirus nasal swabs and in some cases, to be among the first to receive a vaccine that may mark the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And people are still buying weed. Lots of it.

Despite the massive economic disruption wrought by the pandemic, 80 recreational cannabis dispensaries have opened in Illinois and business is on pace to top $1 billion in 2020, including medical marijuana sales.

Illinois’ legal cannabis industry is still very young by many standards, and to top a billion dollars in sales in the first year is significant. To put the sales figure into perspective, Colorado’s first year of legal sales post-legalization (2014) was roughly $684 million.

To be fair, Illinois has a significantly larger population than Colorado, however, Colorado’s medical industry was much older so a better industry framework was already in place, and Colorado had the national monopoly on legal adult-use sales and sold a lot of cannabis to tourists.

Illinois’ cannabis laws are not perfect, and the industry has a lot of room to improve, but what happened in Illinois in 2020 was pretty remarkable, and will hopefully encourage legislators in other prohibition states to pass legalization measures sooner rather than later.

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Illinois Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Set A Record In July

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

The State of Illinois is one of the most populated states in the U.S. and is also home to a regulated adult-use cannabis industry. Illinois’ adult-use industry is one of the most regulated and limited models in the country.

With that being said, the model is still popular enough with consumers to generate sizable tax revenue. In fact, the month of July saw Illinois break a record for tax revenue, as outlined in a recent Chicago Tribune article:

Illinois marijuana shops sold almost $61 million in recreational weed in July, beating the previous record set in June by $13.4 million.

In all, dispensaries have sold about $300.1 million in recreational marijuana since sales started in Illinois Jan. 1.

Much like Washington State, Illinois does not permit adult-use cultivation, however, cultivating up to 5 plants for personal use is only punishable by a $200 fine, compared to cultivation still being a felony in Washington State.

Many lawmakers expressed concern regarding home cultivation when cannabis policies were being crafted which is presumably why it was left out of the model.

However, with personal cultivation not carrying a large penalty, and adult-use sales continuing to spike, it makes sense to remove the penalty for personal cultivation, as it will likely not have a significant impact on tax revenues.

Illinois’ legalization model is not perfect, however, it is better than prohibition and clearly the public policy change is benefiting the state. Hopefully, it builds momentum for other states, and for other nations, to get on the right side of history.

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How Much Legal Adult-Use Cannabis Has Sold In Michigan And Illinois?

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

United States adult-use cannabis legalization started in the West when voters in Colorado and Washington State approved initiatives in 2012.

Legalization then spread to the East Coast when two years later voters in Washington D.C. approved an adult-use initiative. Unfortunately for D.C. residents, the initiative did not legalize adult-use sales and legal adult-use sales are still prohibited in the district.

The newest frontier for legalization in the United States is in the Midwest, where legal adult-use industries have launched in recent months.

Michigan launched legal adult-use sales last month and Illinois did the same at the start of the year.

Decades of Activism Result in Legal Adult-Use Sales in Michigan

Michigan is home to one of the oldest and most well-established cannabis communities in the nation. Activists have fought extremely hard for many years to get legalization passed.

Those efforts culminated in an Election Day victory in Michigan in 2018. Previous attempts to get an initiative on the ballot were thwarted by political special interests in Michigan.

Thankfully, political sabotage proved not to be enough to stop Michigan activists from achieving success, which is a testament to the unwavering dedication of Michigan’s cannabis community.

Legal adult-use sales launched in Michigan in December 2019 in a limited number of markets. First-month sales totals are now available.

According to sales data licensed adult-use retail outlets in Michigan sold roughly $6.5 million worth of cannabis products in December.

The per-month sales total will likely rise in subsequent months and years as more retail outlets open up and supply shortages become less common.

Illinois Makes History

The state of Illinois was not the first state to legalize cannabis for adult use. Illinois was not the first state to legalize cannabis for adult use via legislative action (Vermont was first).

However, Illinois still made history when it became the first state to ever legalize a regulated adult-use cannabis industry via legislative action.

Illinois also made history by becoming the first state to launch a regulated adult-use industry that resulted from legislative action.

That’s significant because not every state has a citizen initiative process, and as Vermont demonstrated, not every legislature is prepared to legalize adult-use sales.

What happens in Illinois will largely impact the opinions of state lawmakers in non-legal sates. So how are things going in Illinois?

According to sales data, licensed retail outlets in Illinois sold a whopping $3.2 million dollars worth of cannabis products – on the first day.

Cannabis consumers in Illinois were obviously very excited to take advantage of legal adult-use cannabis options on New Year’s Day, with reports of long lines everywhere sales were allowed.

Why Success in Illinois and Michigan is so Important

Only a handful of states in the West have refrained from legalizing adult-use cannabis sales, and while legal sales prohibition is still largely the norm on the East Coast, momentum is very strong in the region.

Lawmakers in many states in the Midwest are, for whatever reason, reluctant to pass a legalization measure that includes industry regulations.

That political stance will likely prove to be harder to cling to with consumers from surrounding states flooding into Michigan and Illinois to make a legal purchase, and with it, generate tax revenue for those states.

How long can lawmakers in the region watch cannabis consumer dollars go out of state, and with it the jobs that the economic activity creates before they get on the right side of history?

That largely depends on how successful legal sales prove to be in Michigan and Illinois. If the industries there shine it will increase momentum in other Midwestern states.

If you are part of the legal industry in Michigan or Illinois, know that you are operating under a microscope so proceed appropriately and cautiously. Other states are counting on you!

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Illinois Awards Its First Five Adult-Use Cannabis Industry Licenses

Written by Johnny Green on . Posted in Business.

Illinois is the most recent state to legalize cannabis for adult-use and the first in the nation to have legalized a regulated cannabis industry via legislative action. Every state that currently has an operating legal adult-use cannabis industry legalized via the citizen initiative process, not through the legislature.

State lawmakers in Vermont had legalized cannabis for adult-use before Illinois, however, the Vermont legalization measure did not include provisions for a regulated cannabis industry. Illinois is literally doing something that no other state has ever done before, and cannabis policy wonks and industry members have been keeping a close eye on how things are going for obvious reasons.

The state of Illinois passed a significant milestone this week when it awarded its first round of adult-use cannabis industry licenses. Per The Chicago Tribune:

Illinois awarded its first licenses to sell recreational marijuana to five medical dispensaries on Thursday, even as many municipalities around the state debate whether they’ll allow pot sales.

The five shops that received licenses are peppered throughout Illinois — in Naperville, Mundelein, Joliet, Effingham and Canton — and now have the state’s permission to sell marijuana to anyone over age 21, starting Jan. 1.

Not every state has a citizen initiative process in which citizens can gather a required number of valid signatures from voters and put a cannabis industry legalization measure on election ballots. Because of that, many state legislatures will have to get on board with the idea of supporting a regulated adult-use cannabis industry if the industry is going to spread to certain markets in the U.S.

If things work in Illinois, state legislatures in non-initiative states will be much more likely to support a similar measure in their own jurisdiction. Illinois’ legalization model is not perfect for various reasons, not the least of which is a continued prohibition of home cultivation, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

Hopefully, Illinois will improve its model in the near future and become a truly great example that other states can mimic.

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