PROVIDENCE – As the first anniversary of legalized recreational pot approaches, state records show a steady monthly increase in sales, with October’s $7 million in adult-use purchases just below September’s record-setting $7.1 million.
Meanwhile, the monthly sale of medical marijuana to licensed patients – who pay 13% less in taxes – predictably fell during the last 11 months, from $3.9 million last December, when recreational sales began, to a record low of $2.3 million in October.
Combining the two categories, Rhode Island’s seven marijuana dispensaries sold in October a total of $9,430,642 in cannabis products. That figure, from the most recent data of the Office of Cannabis Regulation, was slightly below the record set in September of $9,633,352.
So, what do the numbers signal for Rhode Island’s expanding marijuana market?
“I think time will tell,” said Erica Ferrelli, chief of strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation for the cannabis office. “I think the numbers are good. They are going up every month, if not staying at a nice level over the past five months. I think it’s a little too early to double down on whether the numbers will continue to increase. They seem to have leveled off, so we might have hit a saturation point. I think we