Recreational Cannabis Sales Continue To Rise In Michigan

The marijuana business has been booming in Michigan during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Detroit News reported that “weekly sales of recreational marijuana in Michigan from March 9 onward have risen significantly.” Since that day in March until this past Sunday, marijuana retailers in the state generated about $54.6 million in sales “with more than $7 million weekly total sales each week for the past four weeks,” according to the Detroit News. 

It represents a fruitful infancy for a market that was only just getting off the ground in the state. The Detroit News said that 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.”

Both recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan have been permitted to remain open during the COVID-19 outbreak, though sales have been limited to curbside pickup and delivery. Curbside pickup was adopted as a permitted practice by Michigan regulators in March, just as stay-at-home orders were being imposed throughout the country. 

Cannabis Sales Surging

With so many people confined to their homes, the marijuana industry has capitalized, with sales also roaring in California and elsewhere. Shareef El-Sissi, the CEO of the California cannabis company Eden Enterprises, told High Times in March that the pandemic was poised to be a seminal moment for the industry. 

“I believe cannabis retail will never be the same. Retailers have been forced to pivot towards a digital first approach and customers have quickly adjusted to the new norm,” El-Sissi said. “When the quarantining is over, I think customers will continue to use digital channels to purchase cannabis. This is more inline with the order online, pick up in  store trend sweeping traditional retail as well.”

Michigan voters passed Proposition 1, which legalized recreational marijuana for adults, by a 12-point margin in the 2018 midterm election.