Recreational reefer revenue resets record

As sales rise higher for legal weed, state’s slice of pot pie follows

Illinois pocketed another $14 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana in July to set another in a series of monthly records. (Shutterstock)

By Ted Cox

Wake and bake, Illinois. Another day, another record for recreational marijuana.

The Illinois Department of Revenue reported Thursday that the state set another record for taxes collected for recreational marijuana last month, amassing $14 million.

The Revenue Department’s tax figures are released about a month after sales numbers, so the new record is no surprise after the state set a new mark for sales of adult-use cannabis in June.

Even so, the $14 million blew past the record $12 million collected in June. About two-thirds of that are typically for taxes specific to recreational pot, with the rest in more mundane sales taxes. Gov. Pritzker’s office claimed $34.7 million in cannabis excise taxes alone in the first six months of legalization, adding that about a quarter of the tax revenue is devoted to expanding equity opportunities in the burgeoning new industry in communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs.

The state can expect another revenue record next month, as July sales figures announced earlier this week by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation also blew past the previous record set the month before, with $61 million in sales produced from over a million items sold.

While other tax collections continued to lag due to the economic slowdown stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the state did bank $3 billion in income-tax revenue last month as the delayed filing deadline from April 15 passed on July 15.