New York Weed Sales Could Pass 1 Billion Mark
After a rocky start, the legal weed market is finally coming into its own in New York state.Cannabis retailers have reported $429.9 million in revenue between January and the end of August, with August seeing weekly sales exceed $20 million for the first time.
Considering these figures and a calculated 200 licensed retailers prepared to open for business by the end of this September, 2024 ending with over $1 billion in regulated weed sales is plausible.
What Were the Sales Projections for New York?
Going over the $1 billion point would be a tenfold boost to over-regulated sales in 2023, however, the number is still below the initial sales projections that were made for New York State.
Cannabis was legalised in March 2021 in New York along with big promises that it would become the nation’s most valuable cannabis market. However, the first legal sale was not registered until nearly the end of December 2022.
Currently, there are 189 licensed retailers in New York state. This is fewer licensed cannabis stores than in Missouri, which legalised recreational cannabis use more than 18 months after New York and with only a third of the population.
With more than a year before thousands of uncertain license applications are approved, regulators and critics have acknowledged that there is much more that needs to be done.
New legislation was passed earlier this year that granted New York law enforcement wide powers to shut down anyone selling cannabis without a permit. This has resulted in nearly 1,350 illegal sellers being closed since May. Thousands of permits are still pending.The mix of increased permitting and the closing down of unlicensed retailers has allowed for an acceleration in regulated sales.
As it stands there are still less than 200 retailers open for business across the state. It has to be considered that It can take between six to nine months after the permitting process for a business to open its doors. There is no exact number of cannabis retailers that the state of New York has said that it can support but it is believed to be in the “thousands.”
There is a backlog of 4,000 permit applications left to process which could take until early 2025 to clear so whilst there are very promising signs, for now, the New York Legal market remains fragile.
More From Soft Secrets:
New York and Weed, What You Need to Know
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Liz Filmer
