COVID-19 fails to stop Michigan pot industry as sales explode during pandemic

At least one industry in Michigan has largely been left unscathed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Recreational marijuana operations have mushroomed, while weekly sales of recreational marijuana in Michigan from March 9 onward have risen significantly.

Recreational pot sales in the nine weeks since March 9 now make up roughly 60% of the state’s overall sales since legal adult-use marijuana sales started Dec. 1. The 14 weeks prior to March 9 account for about 40% of overall marijuana sales.

About $54.6 million in recreational marijuana sales were reported to the state in the nine weeks between March 9 and May 10, with more than $7 million weekly total sales each week for the past four weeks.

Sales over the last nine weeks make up roughly 60% of the $91.6 million in total sales over the 23 weeks that legal recreational marijuana sales have occurred.

The state has reaped about $9.2 million in excise taxes from the sales as well as roughly $6 million in sales tax revenue. But pandemic-prompted shutdowns and delayed tax collections have prompted the State Budget Office to project the state needs to cut $1 billion to $3 billion from the current year budget that closes at the end of September. [Read more at The Detroit News]