Legal cannabis sales in Arizona totaled more than $1.4 billion in 2023, marking the third consecutive year that the state surpassed the $1.4 billion sales total. Arizona’s legal cannabis market continues to transition more toward recreational cannabis sales and less medical cannabis sales.
On November 2, 2010, Arizona voters approved the state’s medical cannabis initiative (Proposition 203) with 50.13% of the vote. The Arizona Department of Health Services finalized medical cannabis dispensary and registry identification card regulations on March 28, 2011, with the first legal medical cannabis purchase being made on December 6, 2012.
In 2020, 60% of Arizona voters approved Proposition 207 (the Smart and Safe Act), which legalized cannabis for adult use and regulated the state’s recreational cannabis industry. Cannabis sales are subject to the Arizona sales tax rate of 5.6% in addition to a 16% excise tax.
The excise tax revenue is used to fund the Arizona Department of Health Services and Department of Public Safety’s regulatory activities. The remaining revenue generated by legal Arizona adult-use cannabis sales is split among community colleges (33%), police and fire departments (31.4%), the state highway fund (25.4%), a justice reinvestment fund (10%), and the attorney general for enforcement (0.2%).
“Recreational marijuana sales for 2023 totaled about $1.1 billion, and medical contributed $348 million for total 2023 sales reaching $1.43 billion. Recreational sales amounted for more than 76 percent of the total, an increase from the 70 percent of sales it represented in 2022. In 2021, the first year adult-use recreational sales were legal, they were just 45 percent of the total.” stated Marijuana Moment in its reporting about Arizona’s legal cannabis industry.
Phoenix, Arizona was recently ranked as the 6th most ‘cannabis-friendly city’ in the United States according to a poll conducted by Leafly and Real Estate Witch.
Cannabis sales in the United States are expected to reach $31.4 billion in 2024 according to a recent analysis by Whitney Economics. Additionally, leading cannabis jobs platform Vangst, in conjunction with Whitney Economics, estimates that the legal cannabis industry now supports 440,445 full time-equivalent cannabis jobs in the United States.
Whitney Economics also projects the following legal cannabis sales figures in the United States for the coming years:
- 2024: $31.4 billion (9.1% growth from 2023)
- 2025: $35.2 billion (12.1% growth from 2024)
- 2030: $67.2 billion
- 2035: $87.0 billion
The emerging legal cannabis industry in the United States is projected to add roughly $112 billion to the nation’s economy in 2024 according to a newly released analysis by MJBiz Daily. The projection is part of the company’s 2024 MJBiz Factbook.
“The total U.S. economic impact generated by regulated marijuana sales could top $112.4 billion in 2024, about 12% more than last year,” MJBiz stated in its initial reporting.