Four Years of Selling Marijuana in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is about to celebrate its four years of selling legal marijuana, so it’s time to rewind everything that happened.

Looking at October 9, there are more than 680 licenses approved in the state, including 268 outlets. In total, the state’s commission received 904 completed applications for work in more than 160 municipalities. As of October 10, 77 outpatient clinics have started operating in the state.

An entire regulatory market for a drug was created by the Commission. Because marijuana was once illegal and has opposed licensing, enforcement and marketing was growing faster than in many companies. However, as the industry begun its third year since the actual start of sales, the work remains. The state has also collected $122 million in taxes in  the past two fiscal years, which included recreational cannabis sales and ended in June 2020. This is well below expectations, mainly due to the late start-up of the industry coupled with the outages due to the coronavirus.

Despite government programs and initiatives to promote disenfranchised groups, white and male camera operators have benefited greatly from this. Of the 901 applicants for whom data are available, only 42 are identified as belonging to women, 73 as belonging to minorities. More than 700 people – 78% – did not belong to a dysfunctional business group.