As soon as Illinois legalized recreational marijuana, hundreds of people braved the January weather to wait in line in front of specialized stores. One of the very first people past the doors on day one was Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who bought a tin of edible gummies. In the first five days of legal pot sales, dispensaries have sold more than $10.8 million worth of it, the office of Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced, and more than 270,000 individual purchases were recorded. In just the first day, Illinois weed sales had reached $3.2 million.
These are the highest sales ever recorded for the launch of legal recreational pot in any state thus far. The only comparable contender is Oregon, which legalized marijuana through an emergency bill one year earlier than initially planned, allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell to everyone instead of limiting sales to licensed recreational retail shops. At the time, there were more than 250 medical marijuana dispensaries running in the state, giving Oregon a sharp advantage over Illinois, which only had 37 stores selling recreational marijuana on legalization day. Despite that edge, Oregon saw slightly lower sales than Illinois, reaching the $10.8 million figure in six days rather than five.
Colorado made about $1 million on the first day of recreational sales, Massachusetts made $400,000 and Michigan made $200,000. Exact figures aren’t available, but we know Nevada averaged $1 million a day in sales for the first few days after legalization, and Washington struggled to get sales off the ground at first, despite being a cannabis powerhouse today with more than $1.3 billion in marijuana sales in the fiscal year 2017 alone.
In Alaska and California, the figures aren’t known, but California might be the only state with first-day sales comparable to the massive movements observed in Illinois and Oregon. The other two states to have legalized recreational pot, Maine and Vermont, haven’t started selling it in retail locations yet. Sales are projected to start in March 2020 in Maine, while Vermont hasn’t made the regulated, commercial sale of recreational marijuana legal—although cultivation, consumption and possession were fully legalized through the state’s legislature.
The resounding success of this first week of sales in Illinois is a milestone for the entire country. It shows that, when a state properly rolls out and regulates adult-use marijuana, it can be a resounding success. Since Illinois taxes marijuana products from 10% to 25% depending on the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content, the high sales represent a potentially massive tax revenue for the state. Part of that revenue will be reinvested to support communities that have been negatively impacted by the so-called “War on Drugs.” To further serve the social justice goal of the legalization bill, Pritzker pardoned more than 11,000 people who had been convicted for cannabis possession the day before the substance went on sale publicly.
Facing Overwhelming Demand
When marijuana becomes freely available for purchase, the first few days are always a rush. Illinois dispensaries had been anticipating shortages for months and stocked up in advance to efficiently face customers’ expectations on legalization day. But even they were taken aback by the overwhelming demand, which forced several stores to suspend their recreational marijuana sales within days until they could restock.
Browsing Chicago-area stores just a week after the initial rush can be disconcerting: “[We are] suspending recreational sales,” says Midway Dispensary; “Adult-use is SOLD OUT,” warns NuMED; “Sold out (check back soon),” adorns most lines of MOCA’s recreational menu. It’s unclear when the products will be back on the shelves.
One of the reasons why adult-use marijuana went out so fast is because the first retail locations allowed to sell it are also medical marijuana dispensaries. It makes sense from a logistical point of view, as they have the necessary experience to handle the products and existing supply lines. However, they are required to keep enough stock for medical marijuana patients, therefore they cannot sell everything they have.
The Chicago Sun-Times noted that dispensaries set limits as to what any one customer is allowed to purchase in an attempt to ration out their stocks. “Demand will continue to increase for the next year-and-a-half or two years at least as people enter the market, get more comfortable, the stigma is removed or they sample products while out with other people,” cannabis analyst Andy Seeger told the Sun-Times. “It’s going to be up to supply to really meet that.”
To meet that need, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation will be giving out an additional 75 adult-use cannabis licenses—a large majority of which will be in the Chicago-Naperville area—before May 2020 in order to unclog the market. Licenses will be awarded according to a point system which favors “social-equity applicants,” who will also pay much smaller fees.
Social equity applicants are businesses owned by (or employing) people who were victims of the War on Drugs—whether they were arrested because of cannabis prohibition, lived in a disproportionately impacted area or are related to people who were victims of past policies. This is another way Illinois is making a stand to defend populations living in poor areas, people of color and lifelong marijuana users in order to avoid handing over a budding market that was proven to be immensely profitable to anyone but the ones who deserve it most.
