The average price of bud has fallen gradually, numbers show. Recreational sales grew 2.5% last year, with dispensaries logging $1.72 billion in sales. Illinois' legal weed business reached an all-time high in 2024, with the state reaping more than $2 billion in sales and nearly a half-billion dollars in sales tax.
But the state's legal pot business continues to operate in the shadow of an unregulated delta-8 and delta-9 market that is siphoning an untold amount of taxes from state coffers.
Despite that, the signs are mostly bright for the state's legal pot business, which has been growing since the drug was legalized in Illinois in 2020.
The average price of bud has fallen gradually. Recreational sales grew 2.5% last year, with dispensaries logging $1.722 billion in sales. And although the medical marijuana market shrunk for a third year in a row, with $285.1 million in sales in 2024, the state logged more than $490 million in sales tax from medical and recreational cannabis sales.
Read more at NPR Illinois