By Jim Small | AZ Mirror
A cratering medical marijuana industry and a softening recreational market dragged total marijuana sales in Arizona down nearly 10% in 2024, breaking a three-year streak of at least $1.4 billion in legal cannabis purchases and marking the second straight year of decline.
The $1.3 billion in combined medical and recreational sales represents a nearly 14% drop from 2022, when Arizona consumers spent a record $1.5 billion at marijuana dispensaries.
As the market has matured, and softened, the disparity between medical and adult-use cannabis sales continues to expand. In 2021, the year the recreational industry launched, sales were nearly evenly split, with 48% of purchases coming from medical marijuana cardholders.
But as the recreational market emerged from its infancy, its sales surged and quickly swamped the medical marijuana market. In 2022, adult use purchases skyrocketed to almost 66% of sales. They increased to 73% of sales in 2023 and grew again to 81% in 2024.
Medical sales now represent less than one-third of what they had been in 2021, when the first recreational dispensary opened.
