Sky high marijuana sales are bringing in a pot of money for Maryland. The state legalized recreational marijuana one month ago. News4’s Derrick Ward looks at the numbers and the challenges to this growing business.
Sky high marijuana sales are bringing in a pot of money for Maryland, where recreational weed became legal July 1.
Sales in the first month exceeded expectations, topping $87.4 million in July.
Licensed growers sold 19.6 thousand pounds of legal weed, and an average of $2.8 million was spent per day.
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“It underscores the need, and actually, it’s happening to destigmatize cannabis,” Jacquie Cohen of CannabizMD.
She has been a longtime advocate of medical marijuana and is an adjunct professor in the master of science in medical cannabis program at the University of Maryland.
“So, people who have been hesitant to come into the market as adult use, I’m sorry, as medical cannabis patients, are coming into the adult use market,” she said.
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With the sales and use tax at 9%, almost $5 million has been infused into the state’s coffers.
With the burgeoning industry, there’s burgeoning economic potential, Cohen said. Maryland got a unique grant from the Maryland Department of Labor.
“They’re training folks to enter the cannabis industry workforce, so it’s a really exciting space,” Cohen said.
Still, there are challenges for the market. Figures released by the Maryland Cannabis Administration show business-end participation among people of color was not what was expected or targeted, which needs to be addressed as the legislation that made recreational use legal gets fine-tuned.
“Legislation is a living, breathing animal,” Cohen said. “So, it is not ideal; it is not perfect.”
She said Maryland going from medical use only to recreational use in just 82 days was quite a feat, considering how some states have taken years to do the same thing.
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