Maryland’s First Month of Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Indicates $1 Billion Market in Store

If Maryland cannabis retailers can continue to replicate their first month of combined adult-use and medical sales, then the Old Line State will join the billion-dollar club.

After 65.5% of voters approved an adult-use cannabis measure in November 2022, Maryland successfully launched commercial sales July 1. And, in the first 31 days, licensed dispensaries sold $87.4 million of combined adult-use and medical cannabis, according to the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA).

Take $87.4 million multiplied by 12 months, and Marylanders will hit the $1-billion yearly benchmark. This 10-figure threshold is a mark that only seven adult-use states surpassed in 2022: California, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona and Washington.

Now, Maryland and Missouri—where retailers recorded $629.3 million in cannabis sales through the first half of 2023 after launching an adult-use retail program in early February—appear poised to be the next states to join that elite company.

By comparison, New York, a state that has more than three times the population of Maryland or Missouri, reported just $33.4 million in adult-use cannabis sales in the first six months of 2023, according to the state’s Office of Cannabis Management. This figure comes after the Empire State launched a commercial retail program in late December 2022 that forbids the larger companies that hold medical cannabis licenses from entering the adult-use market for at least one year—an effort to provide social equity businesses equal footing in the market.

In Maryland, dried cannabis flower accounted for more than 60% of sales in July, while concentrates (26%), infused edibles (7.4%) and infused non-edibles (5.7%) made up the other leading product categories, according to MCA.

Maryland’s medical program was a half-billion-dollar market in its own right, accounting for more than $510 million in sales in 2022.