PHOENIX — Arizona cannabis companies have already sold more than a billion dollars worth of product in 2023, according to state officials, bringing the state more than $97 million in tax revenue.
Arizona legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, leading to a massive boom in cannabis sales. In 2023 the sales topped $1 billion for the first time.
"I have to tell you, from the era I come from, this is all surprising!" Matthew Blum with Grow Sciences in Phoenix said.
Grow Sciences is a marijuana producer that sells its products in dispensaries, but does not have its own brick and mortar store. But in the last year, Grow Sciences quintupled the amount of space it has dedicated to growing marijuana with a massive new warehouse buildout.
"We're very, very blessed," Blum said, "the business has been great."
That growth has largely been across the board, though not every cannabis business has profited or even survived. But it has led to nearly $100 million dollars in tax revenue for the state of Arizona.
According to the Arizona State treasurer's numbers, the money is disbursed mostly to community colleges, police and fire agencies, the Department of Transportation and health departments around the state.
Community colleges, first responders and ADOT get just below 30% of the tax revenue each.
"Everybody expected it to be a billion," Demetri Downing with the Arizona chapter of the Marijuana Industry Trade Association said. "I think personally there's probably a billion out there still on the table."
One of the largest changes in the last few years has been in banking. For years, even when only medical marijuana was legal in Arizona, no bank would take the chance on giving cannabis companies a bank account. The fear was, since marijuana is still a Schedule 1 narcotic and federally illegal, the banks would be inviting federal scrutiny.
But now, there are banks that are open to cannabis businesses. Some are even publicly traded, though only on the Canadian stock market.
Still, Blum said, banks have yet to offer credit to cannabis businesses. Doing so, he said, would dramatically expand the industry even further. But Blum also believes it was take the federal government legalizing marijuana nationwide.
"Once you reschedule it, we're hoping the major banks get involved and then you have the institutional investors and then money will open up," Blum said.
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