The numbers are in for Washington State’s recreational marijuana sales for April 2015.
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This was the first 4/20 for recreational marijuana sales in Washington. Sales started in July of 2014. As I expected, sales grew significantly compared to earlier in the year, and exponentially more than last summer. Per Marijuana Business Daily:
Sales via rec shops totaled $24.8 million in April, up from $12.7 million during the first month of 2015, according to the latest data from the state Liquor Control Board.
The number is up significantly from the $2 million brought in during July 2014, the first month that sales began.
From July 1 through the first week of May, total retail sales in Washington State totaled $119.7 million, with projected retail excise tax revenues of $29.9 million.
I’d expect those numbers to come back down for May. April 20th, and the days leading up to it, will always give a boost to marijuana store numbers. Something to watch for in Washington is the implementation of Senate Bill 5052, which is going to drastically change the landscape of the marijuana industry in Washington. The bill is an attempt to fuse the medical marijuana industry with the recreational marijuana industry, which is going to either force patients to pay much higher prices for their meds at licensed stores (which would boost numbers for current rec store owners), force them to go back to the black market, or even worse, force them to go without meds altogether.
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