After an impressive first month of recreational cannabis sales, Missouri followed up with an even larger second month, bringing in a total of $126 million during March after voters first voted to legalize recreational cannabis in November 2022.
The $126.2 million comes from both medical and recreational cannabis sales, with $32.7 million coming from medicinal cannabis sales and $93.5 million coming from recreational sales. The numbers represent an increase of 22.4 percent in sales from February. The state is currently on pace to become the fastest state to record $1 billion in collective cannabis sales, with the whole history of the medical cannabis program and the burgeoning recreational cannabis program also on track to surpass $1 billion in sales as it currently sits at over $874 million.
During February, the first month of legal recreational cannabis sales, the state brought in a total of $102.9 million in cannabis sales, with nearly $72 million coming from adult-use cannabis sales alone. According to the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, the state brought in $12.6 million in total cannabis sales during the first weekend of recreational sales, with $8.5 million coming from recreational sales
“Between record cannabis sales and local communities voting to embrace the economic benefits of adult use sales, Missouri couldn’t be better positioned to make a real and lasting impact on our state economy, while being one of the most customer-friendly cannabis programs in the entire nation,” said Andrew Mullins, The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association (MoCannTrade) Executive Director.
Missouri’s Division of Cannabis Regulations has said over 14,000 jobs have been created in the cannabis industry as of March. Anyone who wants to work in the industry, including owners, needs an “agent ID badge” through the state. The state’s Department of Health and Senior Services, who oversees the state’s cannabis program, approved 264 badges in November. The number doubled in December to over 500 badges and doubled again to over 1,100 in both January and February. By the end of February, the DHSS said there were 12,970 individuals with agent ID badges, up from just over 10,000 in November.
“We needed more staff than we thought, because volume was up significantly more than we planned on,” Mueller said. “We immediately started a hiring spree because my goal is to get wait times always under 15 minutes. We’re not alone. Missouri had 12,500 employees in the cannabis industry, and when the new numbers come out, we expect it to be closer to 15,000, as everybody started ramping up to meet demand,” said John Mueller, CEO of Greenlight Dispensary, the largest cannabis operation in Missouri. Mueller said he had a wait time of one hour during the first week of sales at his stores, an issue that he said was remedied by hiring 100 more employees throughout the state.
Experts believe Missouri could have the most fascinating cannabis market in the country as the legal market continues to form and take shape. Through just a couple of months, the state has seen increases in sales and customers as well as a 50 percent increase in the price for wholesale cannabis flower. Ben Burstein, strategy analyst at LeafLink, a cannabis B2B platform, said there are two major factors that have contributed to the state’s successful launch: the program’s structure allowed almost instant retail opportunities by licensing existing medical cannabis retailers, and the state’s geographic location amongst states that don’t have legal recreational markets aside from Illinois, which has significantly higher prices and taxes.“If it follows some of the patterns that other states have seen—if you continue getting a lot of your traffic from outside of Missouri, the state could do $2 billion in sales next year,” said Burstein.
