With $15.08 million in medical cannabis sales last month, Virginia’s MMJ market held strong in January after a record December, according to recently released state data.
That may bode well for retailers once adult-use cannabis sales launch as soon as November of this year under legislation state lawmakers will soon send to Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA) began tracking monthly medical marijuana sales last August.
How much medical cannabis is sold in Virginia?
Since then, according to CCA data, sales have held relatively steady.
- August, $15.18 million
- September, $13.83 million
- October, $15.15 million
- November, $14.5 million
- December, $15.62 million
- January, $15.08 million
Virginia’s medical program is restricted by law to no more than five vertically integrated operators, each of which is limited to a specific geographical region.
One region has no operational dispensaries despite a state license.
All that is poised to change once adult-use sales begin, though exactly when that is – and what fee the medical operators, all but one of which are cannabis multistate operators, will have to pay to convert to adult-use – is still to be determined.
State lawmakers passed slightly different versions of a bill to finally begin adult-use sales in Virginia, which legalized in 2021.
Several efforts to start sales were thwarted by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who vetoed two bills setting up regulated adult-use cannabis access.
Spanberger has promised to sign a cannabis sales bill into law when it reaches her desk.
When will Virginia adult-use marijuana sales start?
But before that can happen, state lawmakers must reconcile competing versions of bills passed by the state Senate and House of Delegates.
The House bill caps the number of adult-use retailers allowed statewide at no more than 350.
Virginia’s potential is immense, according to projections.
Adult-use cannabis sales could reach $780 million in the first full year of sales and exceed $1.09 billion by the second year, according to an MjBiz Factbook projection.
An affiliate of Millstreet Credit Fund, a Boston-based hedge fund, announced its intention to purchase one of the existing medical cannabis permits for $130 million.
