Prices have also rebounded since January.
This story was republished with permission from Crain’s Detroit Business and was written by Dustin Walsh.
Michigan’s marijuana market continues its ascent, breaking another sales record in July.
The industry sold roughly $276.75 million worth of adult-use recreational and medical marijuana products last month, a 33.5% increase over January’s sales. If sales continue at this pace, they will top $3 billion in 2023.
The growth has come exclusively from adult-use recreational marijuana sales, which are up 38% since January, compared to declining medical marijuana sales, down nearly 46% for the year through July. Adult-use prices are cheaper than medical marijuana by nearly $3.38 per ounce, which means people with a medical marijuana card are more likely to just buy recreational weed.
It’s a far cry from the price collapses the industry has been facing for the last two years.
Adult-use recreational marijuana prices have recovered to $98.65 per ounce of flower in July, a 23% rise since January. However, prices remain low compared to the early days of the adult-use regulated market when prices topped $500 per ounce.
It’s led to troubles for at least seven marijuana companies in the state, which are under a court-ordered receiver to manage their finances. That includes Dimondale-based Skymint, one of the state’s largest growers.
The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency is taking credit for the recovering prices, attributing the rise to expanded rule enforcement that’s dropped illegal market marijuana from allegedly flooding the legal market. The CRA has collected nearly $3.3 million from regulatory fines against “bad actors” in the industry since 2020.
Through July, Michigan marijuana sales have topped $1.7 billion. In 2022, the Michigan industry topped $2.3 billion, and the state appears to be on track to easily top that total this year. Beyond that, marijuana sales also topped distilled liquor sales in the state for the first time last year, which totaled $1.91 billion.
That meteoric rise in marijuana sales since Dec. 2019 means the state now has the second-largest market by sales in the U.S. behind California.
Legal marijuana sales in California topped $5.3 billion last year, though it has nearly 30 million more residents than Michigan. There are 23 states with legal adult-use marijuana.
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