Massachusetts’ Recreational Cannabis Sales Continue to Rise

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]R[/dropcap]ecreational cannabis brought in a swooping $2.6 million by its seventh day of legal sales in Massachusetts, according to data released by state regulators. The Cannabis Control Commission reports that customers spent $2.2 million in the first five days of retail sales, bringing the total expenditure on cannabis to $4.8 million since the stores opened officially on Nov. 20.  

The two stores that are now open in Massachusetts are New England Treatment Access (NETA) in Northampton and Cultivate in the Worcester County town of Leicester.

There are several ways in which cannabis products are taxed. There is a 0.25 percent sales tax, a 10.75 percent excise tax and a three percent local tax that communities can levy. “There’s a huge public demand for this,” said Rep. Mark Cusack, the co-chairman of the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy. He regarded this monumental sales figure as $4.8 million that didn’t go into the pockets of the black market.

Customers bought 65,196 “units” in the second week, the term for cannabis or products made with cannabis such as a chocolate bar or a bottle of lotion. Each and every register is busy from the time we open to closing time, Norton Arbelaez, government operations director at NETA, told Marijuana Business Daily.

The Cannabis Control Commission continues to review applications for new and upcoming marijuana businesses, and other retail stores are expected to open before the New Year. State revenue officials predict that Massachusetts will take in between $44 million and $82 million in marijuana tax revenue this fiscal year—and is likely to bring in as much as $172 million in the fiscal year 2020, Revenue Commissioner Christopher Harding told lawmakers last Wednesday. Cannabis sales in Massachusetts are subject to a 10.75 percent excise tax and the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, as well as a local tax of up to three percent.