Legal California Cannabis Market ‘On The Verge Of Collapse,’ While Illegal Growers Thrive, Destroying Environment

Legal cannabis sales in California are declining. The State Department of Tax and Fee Administration just posted first-quarter sales and tax figures revealing the lowest quarter for marijuana sales since the second quarter of 2020.

In the first three months of 2023, the businesses recorded $1.2 billion in taxable cannabis sales, which garnered $259.92 million in combined excise and sales taxes. For comparison purposes, cannabis sales in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to $1.28 billion, and in the first quarter of 2022 sales reached $1.33 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2023, legal marijuana sales amounted to $1.28 billion.

Los Angeles-based consultant Hirsh Jain commented on the news sales figures, pointing out that the California cannabis market is “on the verge of collapse.” Jain told Green Market Report that the data is “really astonishing. Objectively, we have data that shows the California market is in decline.”

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Questionable Policy Decisions

Jain also further cautioned about the tax reform approved by the legislature in 2022, which would raise the …

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