Illinois Is Set To Make $1 Billion In Legal Cannabis Sales
As marijuana stocks continue to pick up in momentum the sector as a whole is making solid progress. For the last several month’s many marijuana stocks have not been able to push up in the market. Essentially the entire sector was facing a downward pattern of trading. Due to this recent downtrend in trading, it caused investors to feel a great deal of uncertainty. The impact of this downtrend created some pros and cons. For one some investors were able to purchase shares of top cannabis stocks at lower entry points. If trading can further recover the buy low sell high strategy should pay off for some investors.
Next is the con of the downtrend which led to some people selling off some of their position to recoup any money they could. This strategy in turn also played a part to drive the price of certain marijuana stocks down. However, in recent trading things have started to look better for cannabis stocks. As far as the progress of the industry more states are going legal and more companies are starting to expand through mergers and acquisitions.
The states that are currently legal and have an active marijuana market are generating large amounts of revenue. For instance now with New Jersey and New York both legalizing marijuana projections for both states are set at high numbers. Although federal reform has yet to happen on a state level the progress of cannabis legislation is astounding. What was once a taboo subject to even speak about has now turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Some advocates feel that once every state has passed some form of cannabis legislation it will put more pressure on Congress to end cannabis prohibition.
The Progress Of The U.S. Cannabis Industry With More Legal States
With more states going legal and establishing new markets only means more money and value that’s being added to the North American cannabis industry. As of now more than half of the United States has legalized cannabis in some fashion. With the large amount of money that is being generated through legal cannabis sales, the taxes from these sales are now being used to fund programs.
These programs are being used to promote social equity and help rebuild communities impacted by the war on drugs. The state mentioned below is an example of just one region that has created a high revenue market in the United States. If more states can generate revenue like this there’s no telling how much more can be accomplished from legal cannabis.
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Illinois Is Producing High Amounts Of Revenue
In the state of Illinois legal cannabis is expanding at a fast pace. With the state legalizing recreational cannabis back in 2019 the state first began its legal sale of cannabis in 2020. Current projections show that Illinois is on course to hit 1$ billion in cannabis sales by the end of 2021. Just 2 months ago back in March consumers of the state spent $110 million on recreational marijuana. President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Todd Maisch mentioned some thoughts on his state’s cannabis industry. Maisch said that part of the reason for this growth is that many surrounding states have yet to legalize marijuana.
“What we saw early on in states like Washington and Colorado is they did have demand come in from surrounding states, which frankly benefits our industry and benefits the taxes collected,” Maisch said.
The money made from the state’s alcohol tax revenue has been beaten by the sale of recreational marijuana. Maisch also mentioned he believes the 1$ billion dollar projection is a bit conservative.
“Are we going to get to a billion dollars? I think we’re going to blow past the billion dollars based on the experience in smaller states,” Maisch said.
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Illinois Cannabis Market Continues To Grow
There are only a few circumstances that could halt the growth of Illinois’s cannabis market, Maisch said. Furthermore, He said that policymakers could destroy things by driving taxes too high. The comparison made was similar to the tobacco market.
“As taxes have gone up and up and up, they’ve pushed people all the way into the black market or they’ve created this grey market in which people are ostensibly paying some of the taxes, but they’re still getting sources of tobacco products that avoid much of the tax,” Maisch said.
Another factor that could hurt Illinois’s continued growth is other states legalizing recreational cannabis.
“So if you start to see surrounding states go to recreational, that’s definitely going to flatten the curve because we’re not going to be pulling in demand from other states,” Maisch said.
Maisch points out some concerns that accompany the explosion of Illinois’s recreational cannabis market including workforce preparedness.
“All of those individuals who are deciding to go ahead and consume this product are really taking themselves out of a lot of job opportunities that they would otherwise be qualified, so there’s a real upside and a downside,” Maisch said.
While it’s easy to track the revenues this industry brings into state coffers. It will be harder to track the lack of productivity and qualified individuals to operate heavy machinery and other jobs that require employees to pass a drug test.
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