Illinois Cannabis Data Change Suggests Much Lower Sales

Illinois released sales figures for several months today. The last time it had released data, it was for adult-use cannabis in May. The document today explained that the switch to Metrc had been the cause of the lack of data. “The sales tracking features in Metrc help retailers more accurately and reliably report actual sales, including all discounts and promotions at checkout. A thorough review of past data indicates prior months collected some pre-discount prices.”

The state’s adult-use cannabis sales were up 7.5% sequentially in October to $113.1 million, an increase on a per-day basis of 4.0%. The year-over-year growth was -20.5%. Here is the chart of the adult-use sales over time:

After increasing 106% in 2021, 13% in 2022 and then 5% in 2023, year-to-date adult-use sales were up 5.4% in 2024 to $1.72 billion.  So far in 2025, they are down 9.9%.

There has been no update on medical cannabis from the state in a while. The state separately releases sales from its medical program, and the release for April showed that sales fell 1.6% sequentially to $19.7 million, which was down 13.2% from a year ago.