Since leisure marijuana gross sales had been legalized statewide in January 2020, taxes and charges have generated greater than $850 million for Illinois.
Final month alone, the 110 leisure dispensaries all through Illinois collected $131,547,031 in income, their fourth-highest month-to-month tally ever.
However these gross sales figures have remained comparatively flat since March, main some to fret the state’s hashish money cow has reached the best hill within the state’s income pasture.
Lower than two weeks in the past, the state legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability revised the state’s income estimates, lowering hashish tax fund expectations by $8 million this fiscal 12 months. It was simply considered one of three common fund income sources the place officers now anticipate fewer {dollars} than initially budgeted.
Illinois dispensaries are additionally getting competitors from Missouri after voters there not too long ago accredited adult-use marijuana gross sales. Not one of the 5 states that border Illinois beforehand allowed leisure gross sales of marijuana.
“Almost a 3rd of the state’s (leisure) gross sales got here from out-of-state residents, however there was an enormous inflow from Missouri,” mentioned Pam Althoff, government director of the Hashish Enterprise Affiliation of Illinois, the statewide lobbying arm of the business. “However there are actually a number of causes for the plateauing.”
Althoff cited inflation, extra staff returning to the workplace after the COVID-19 pandemic and the state’s excessive tax price on marijuana as causes gross sales have leveled off.
“For a lot of, the illicit market might be a extra sensible monetary different,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless business insiders see room for continued progress in Illinois, significantly in areas the place dispensaries do not but exist.
“Some individuals must drive 100 miles to get to a dispensary in Illinois,” mentioned Jason Erkes, chief communications officer for Cresco Labs, which operates 10 dispensaries in Illinois in addition to cultivation operations. “We’re nonetheless within the very early levels of this business in Illinois.”
In reality, the state is on the verge of issuing practically 200 extra dispensary licenses as a part of its “social fairness” program meant to offer alternatives to individuals and communities — many with giant minority populations — traditionally affected by marijuana criminalization. This system was stalled as a result of pandemic after which a lawsuit.
The Illinois Division of Monetary and Skilled Regulation not too long ago licensed two of the primary social fairness permits for Chicago dispensaries.
“With fairness as our north star, right now marks step one for retail hashish operations to start repairing the devastating hurt brought on by the failed Struggle on Medicine on communities of colour,” J.B. Pritzker mentioned earlier this month when the permits had been licensed. “Illinois is ready to greater than double the variety of hashish dispensaries with each single new license holder being a social fairness applicant.”
Allow charges from these social fairness candidates can even improve the state’s income.
Illinois generates allow charges from dispensary operators, growers and different elements of the legalized marijuana business. Since legalization, practically $38 million in permits and charges has been paid to Illinois.
The state additionally expenses a various tax price on marijuana merchandise relying on the efficiency, and that is liable for the lion’s share of income generated by legalized marijuana. Of the $850 million amassed by the state from charges and taxes on legalized gross sales, the marijuana tax is liable for greater than $531 million of that, in response to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Lastly, state and municipal gross sales taxes are additionally utilized to authorized purchases. That is amounted to almost $281 million for the state since January 2020, whereas municipalities and counties with dispensaries have acquired a mixed $144 million, IDOR data present.
That features the suburbs of Addison, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Buffalo Grove, Carpentersville, Lombard, Mount Prospect, Mundelein, Naperville, North Aurora, Northbrook, Rolling Meadows, Rosemont, Schaumburg, St. Charles and Wheeling.
Moreover the state’s common fund, income from recreational-use gross sales is funneled into numerous totally different state packages comparable to hashish arrest expungements and state drug remedy efforts. An estimated $15 million can be used to cowl state company prices for oversight of the state’s legalized marijuana program.
About $1.7 million a month additionally goes into the state’s Native Authorities Distributive Fund, which directs state revenues again to municipalities and counties primarily based on inhabitants.
By means of the primary 10 months of this 12 months, clients have been shopping for a mean of two.9 million marijuana-related objects a month and spending a mean of $42.71 per buy.
Erkes mentioned conventional smokable marijuana remains to be the “market chief” amongst clients, however edibles have gained in reputation as a result of it permits these ingesting it to “handle the consequences” with every dose.
“Illinois may be very regulated and compliance-focused,” he mentioned. “A number of different states have modeled their legalization legal guidelines after Illinois and replicated what Illinois has accomplished.”