Michigan’s licensed dispensaries are selling more cannabis flower than ever despite neighboring Ohio recently launching adult-use sales earlier this year.
The Wolverine State’s retailers sold 103,129 pounds of adult-use cannabis flower in November, breaking a monthly record of 100,894 pounds from August, according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA). That does not include the 30,800 pounds of shake/time sold in November.
Dispensary ledgers benefited from both August and November 2024 having five Fridays and five Saturdays, typically the two highest-yielding sales days of the week for cannabis retailers.
RELATED: 5 Tips to Capitalize on Friday Sales at Your Dispensary
However, August still holds Michigan’s monthly record for $295.4 million in dispensary sales—compared to $276.4 million in November sales—because prices for cannabis products continue to fall. The average price for 1 ounce of cannabis flower fell from $80.14 in August to an all-time low of $71.80 in November, according to the CRA.
Although neighboring Ohio launched adult-use sales in August, the Buckeye State’s average cost of roughly $210 per ounce for cannabis flower remains roughly triple that of Michigan’s, according to the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control. This is an indicator that many would-be Ohio spenders who live within reasonable driving distance are still crossing the border to make their purchases in Michigan.
With November in the books, Michigan’s dispensaries have now sold more than $3 billion in adult-use cannabis for the year with December numbers still to be configured—an annual record in the five-year history of the program.
Michigan recorded $2.98 billion in adult-use sales in 2023, with $80 million in medical sales pushing the overall total to $3.06 billion, according to the CRA.
Since adult-use sales launched in December 2019, Michigan’s dispensaries have reported $9.85 billion in cumulative adult-use transactions and $1.33 billion in medical cannabis transactions for a combined total of nearly $11.2 billion in sales—representing the nation’s second-largest market after California.
Michigan remains on pace to eclipse $3.3 billion in cannabis sales in 2024, while California—having four times the population—is on pace to record just shy of $4.7 billion in sales.
