Massachusetts marijuana establishments continue to break records, here are the numbers

WORCESTER—Capping off its best-ever sales month in December, adult-use Marijuana Establishments in Massachusetts set a new annual gross sales record in 2023, exceeding $1.56 billion, the Cannabis Control Commission has announced. The yearly total surpassed 2022 gross sales by $78 million, an increase of more than 5 percent over 2022. This marks the sixth consecutive year of record-setting growth in adult-use cannabis sales in Massachusetts.

“This continued growth confirms that Massachusetts’ regulated marijuana industry is still a maturing market,” said Acting Chair Ava Concepcion. “As more retailers and delivery licensees come online, flower prices start to stabilize, and the stigma surrounding cannabis slowly dissipates—legal, tested products are becoming more accessible, affordable, and approachable than ever before, and that’s reflected in the multiple sales records licensees broke in 2023.”

The latest sales figures retailers recorded into the state’s mandatory seed-to-sale system, Metrc, indicate that adult-use Marijuana Retailers and Delivery Operators generated $140.1 million in adult-use sales in December, surpassing record sales in August earlier in the year. Nearly every individual month of 2023, gross sales figures exceeded 2022 numbers.  Please note that all data is self-reported by licensees and adjusted for voided transactions. These datasets do not represent the Commonwealth’s tax earnings.

The Commission has tracked sales since the first two adult-use retail stores on the East Coast opened in November 2018. As of December 31, 2023, 338 Marijuana Retailers and 21 delivery businesses had received the agency’s notice to commence operations. Over that five-year span, the four highest adult-use cannabis sales months all occurred in 2023, with nine of the top 12 all-time sales months happening in 2023.

In 2023, more than 97,000 certified medical patients in Massachusetts helped account for another $225 million in sales from the 103 Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers that have commenced operations. The combined total of $1.79 billion for adult-use and medical cannabis sales in Massachusetts also marks a new record for a calendar year. Please note: the Commission only began reporting medical sales in Massachusetts after it assumed oversight of the Medical Use of Marijuana Program from the Massachusetts Department of Health in December 2018.

To continue expanding access to this still-growing industry, the Commission has recently announced that it will begin accepting applications for the fourth cohort of its Social Equity Program (SEP) starting Monday, February 5.

The SEP, the first of its kind in the nation, is a free, statewide technical assistance and training program that creates sustainable pathways into the regulated cannabis industry for individuals most impacted by the War on Drugs, including disproportionate arrest and incarceration as the result of marijuana prohibition.

As of January 28, 2024, aggregate data recorded in Metrc by Marijuana Retailers and delivery businesses that have commenced operations statewide showed that more than $5.65 billion in gross sales has been generated.