New York Marijuana Sales Could Double To $1.5 Billion In 2025 As Market Expands, State Officials Predict
From toxifillers.com with love
New York marijuana regulators say the state could double its adult-use marijuana sales in 2025, with top officials projecting upwards of $1.5 billion in cannabis purchases this year.
With the state’s market maturing, more stores set to open and continued efforts to crack down on illicit sellers, Office of Cannabis Management Executive Director Felicia Reid says “2025 sales could certainly exceed $1.5 billion,” though the office is still refining its “out-year projections with market analysis and feedback.”
“It’s also significant that entrepreneurs in the market are deeply dialed into consumer tastes and interests, so their adaptability will factor into the pace of market growth as well,” she told The New York Post.
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John Kagia, policy director at OCM, said that based on the rate of retail license approvals in 2024, “we would expect over 350 dispensaries to open in 2025.”
New York already crossed a major cannabis sales milestone last month, surpassing the $1 billion mark for legal marijuana purchases since the adult-use market launched in late 2022.
“This milestone is a testament to the resilience, hard work, and innovation of cannabis entrepreneurs across New York,” Reid said in a press release on Thursday. “As $1 billion is an incredible number, let us celebrate the individuals, businesses, and communities in cannabis who drive our state’s economic engine.”
Cannabis Control Board Chairwoman Tremaine Wright said “New York’s cannabis industry was designed with a focus on equity and opportunity, and this achievement is proof that our approach is working.”
“This is only the beginning of what’s possible when we invest in an inclusive and well-regulated industry,” she said.
OCM officials predicted ahead of the holidays that they’d hit the $1 billion marijuana sales figure by the end of 2024, and they encouraged adults to give the “gift of community” by buying cannabis locally.
Kagia said at a December 10 meeting that, “based on the estimates for what we’re looking to do through the end of the year, we will comfortably break that billion dollar mark for the first time before the end of the year.”
After a slow rollout in marked by lawsuits and other delays, legal marijuana sales in New York have picked up significantly in the past several months. Regulators say that’s the result of more licensed businesses opening as well as what they describe as a successful crackdown on unlicensed shops.
This spring, officials in New York City launched Operation Padlock, an enforcement initiative meant to shutter illegal storefronts. Since then, licensed shops that were open before the operation began have since seen sales climb 105 percent, according to an OCM survey.
In November, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes called for the state to extend financial aid to retail operators operators struggling under high-cost loans from a social equity fund created as a core part of the legalization program.
Later in the month, Hochul signed two new cannabis-related bills into law—one to revive the Cannabis Growers Showcase program, where producers sell products directly to consumers at farmers market-style events, and another clarifying that cannabis is categorized as an agricultural crop in the state.
The governor argued in June, meanwhile, that there’s a direct correlation between stepped-up enforcement and “dramatically” increased legal sales. A report by state officials last year found both “growing pains” and “successful efforts” in New York’s marijuana market launch.
In August, the governor lauded what she called the state’s “smokin’ hot” marijuana market, as the retailers in state passed the half-billion-dollar mark in legal sales since the market’s launch.
The governor also said in June that the state’s escalated enforcement actions against illicit marijuana shops is resulting in a significant increase in legal sales at licensed retailers.
She made the comments amid criticism from equity-focused activists over what they see as a “corporate takeover” of the cannabis market, citing reporting about the administration dismissing concerns from state officials about a “predatory” private equity loan deal the state approved to provide funding for startup cannabis retailers.
Certain advocates say Hochul has “falsely” blamed the legalization law itself for the state’s troubles with the illicit market, without taking responsibility for the administration’s role. To that end, there has been criticism of the governor’s ousting of Chris Alexander as executive director of OCM last year.
In an attempt to rein in unlicensed sales, the governor in February called on big tech companies such as Google and Meta to “do the right thing” by taking steps to stop promoting illicit marijuana shops, which have proliferated across the state.
Meanwhile, New York officials this summer rolled out a broad plan to encourage environmental sustainability and set energy use standards within the state’s legal marijuana industry. It’s part of regulators’ broader goal of promoting economic, environmental and social sustainability in the emerging sector.
In June, state regulators also formally approved rules to allow adults 21 and older to grow their own cannabis plants for personal use.
In September, meanwhile, the state announced it’s preparing to deploy up to $5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax revenue as part of an effort to reinvest in areas disproportionately impacted by the the war on drugs. OCM said the awards aim “to redress a wide range of community needs—from housing to childcare to job skills training and many areas in between.”
Meanwhile, a group of 18 organizations recently wrote to New York’s governor to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes” during the latter half of last year.
Separately, New York senators have prefiled a bill for the 2025 session that would legalize psilocybin therapy for patients with qualifying conditions.
Photo courtesy of WeedPornDaily.
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