California reported approximately $5.3 billion in taxable cannabis sales for 2022, down from nearly $5.8 billion in 2021.
As MJBizDaily points out, it marks an 8.6% decline year over year and represents the first time since the state launched adult-use recreational sales five years ago that sales have declined annually.
Hirsh Jain, vice chair of the California Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told SFGATE that he’s treating the decline as “a warning signal” that California’s market for legal cannabis is on the “brink of collapse.”
The state reported nearly $1.1 billion in total cannabis taxes for 2022, down from about $1.36 billion in 2021. The decline can in part be attributed to California, as of July 1, 2022, no longer collecting cultivation taxes on cannabis entering the commercial market.
California recorded approximately $4.7 billion in taxable sales for 2020 along with $2.8 billion in 2019 and nearly $2 billion in 2018.
