Between January 1 and October 31 of this year, there was $15.9 billion worth of marijuana and marijuana products sold in states where it’s legal for recreational use.
Among the 24 states that have legalized recreational marijuana, the vast majority have marijuana retail outlets open for business, with some having passed their legalization law too soon for stores to be open (Minnesota and Ohio, for example). Virginia is the only state to not allow recreational marijuana sales despite possession being legal. In the states that do have marijuana stores, they report sales data at considerably different speeds, meaning that although for many states we have data through the end of October, in others we have data only through June or July.
According to an analysis by The Marijuana Herald of the most up-to-date data that is currently available via state agencies and cannabis commissions, there was just shy of $16 billion worth of marijuana sold in 2023, a substantial increase over all previous years. Sales numbers include the distribution of dried marijuana flower and shake as well as a variety of other marijuana products including edibles, tinctures, topicals and concentrates.
Here are the states included in our analysis, along with their estimated sales for 2023:
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California
$3.5 billion
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Michigan
$2.6 billion
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Massachusetts
$1.32 billion
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Illinois
$1.2 billion
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Colorado
$1.2 billion
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Missouri
$1.1 billion
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Arizona
$900 million
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Oregon
$800 million
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Washington
$700 million
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Nevada
$500 million
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New Mexico
$450 million
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New Jersey
$365 million
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Maryland
$350 million
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Connecticut
$225 million
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Montana
$215 million
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Maine
$180 million
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Alaska
$120 million
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New York
$100 million
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Rhode Island
$80 million
When it comes to tax revenue, marijuana tax rates vary substantially from state-to-state, and several states don’t report tax data. However, based on the data we do have available from state agencies, the $14.5 billion in sales resulted in over $1.8 billion in tax revenue
Colorado ands Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. In the 11 years since, 22 other states have passed similar laws. Florida could become the 25th legal marijuana state with voters set to consider a legalization initiative next year, although these three states could beat them to it.
[Editor’s note: States that have legalized medical but not recreational marijuana were not included in our analysis. However, some of the data included for the states listed above include both medical marijuana and recreational marijuana sales.]
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