Michigan’s Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Up 21% From Last Year

While many state cannabis markets have slowed down or shrunk during the past two years, Michigan continues to hit the accelerator during its fifth year of adult-use sales.

Michigan’s licensed cannabis retailers reported nearly $1.1 billion in adult-use transactions during the first four months of 2024, according to monthly data released May 14 by the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA).

This sales figure represents a 21% increase from the $880 million that adult-use customers spent during the same time period in 2023.

However, as adult-use sales continue to surge, Michigan’s medical cannabis market has nose-dived to all-time lows with $8.6 million in sales during the first four months of 2024, a 78% decrease from the nearly $39 million in sales during the same period in 2023, according to CRA.

This is largely a result of adult-use retail prices falling in line with medical cannabis retail prices as the market has matured: In April 2024, the average retail price per ounce was $86.61 for adult-use flower and $99.74 for medical flower, according to CRA. In comparison, in April 2020, the average prices were $413 for adult-use flower and $259.14 for medical flower.

Medical cannabis sales represent 0.8% of Michigan’s overall marketplace so far in 2024. This comes after the state had one of the most robust medical markets in the nation with $474 million in sales in 2020, representing 48% of its overall sales, during Michigan’s first full year of an adult-use marketplace.

Since the beginning of 2020, Michigan’s licensed cannabis retailers have reported more than $9.2 billion in sales, including $7.9 billion in adult-use transactions and $1.3 billion in medical purchases, as the nation’s second-largest cannabis market. This is only bested by California, where customers have spent more than $22 billion on cannabis since the beginning of 2020, according to the state’s tax department.

*Sales are through April 30, 2024.

So far in 2024, Michigan’s cannabis retail market is highlighted by a record $288.8 million in overall sales in March, a month that included five Fridays and five Saturdays—traditionally the two biggest sales days of the week for dispensaries. Two more months this year—August and November—include five Fridays and five Saturdays.

With regard to demand, Michigan retailers are selling an average of roughly 83,600 pounds of adult-use cannabis flower per month in 2024, representing a 7% increase compared to the first four months of 2023, according to CRA.

Michigan’s flower sales accounted for $124 million in April 2024, or 45% of the adult-use market, while vape cartridges (18.7%), inhalable compound concentrates (13%), infused edibles (9.2%), shake/trim (7.9%) and concentrates (5.7%) made up the other leading product categories, according to CRA.

On the supply side, Michigan has roughly 40.5% more adult-use cannabis flower in inventory when comparing April 2024 with April 2023, or about a 200,000-pound increase, according to CRA.

This comes at a time when Michigan has 1,044 active adult-use grower licenses and 793 adult-use retailer licenses as of April 30, 2024, according to CRA. This compares to 1,024 grower and 662 retailer licenses as of April 30, 2023.

At their current pace, Michigan’s cannabis retailers will eclipse $3.2 billion in sales in 2024. However, Michigan dispensaries have traditionally experienced their largest sales months in the latter half of the year, meaning the 2024 total could very well land north of $3.5 billion based on previous growth trends.