Medical marijuana sales stumble in Illinois as overall market cools

On the heels of a record year, slumping medical marijuana sales in Illinois in early 2025 are dragging down overall cannabis revenue.

From the beginning of December 2024 through the end of February 2025, Illinois retailers reported $488.7 million in total sales, according to the most recent data available from the state Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office.

That’s down from the $501.7 million reported over the same time frame a year ago – a decrease attributable to flagging MMJ sales.

From December 2024 to the end of February 2025, adult-use marijuana retailers recorded $424 million in sales, state sales figures show.

That’s up from the $423.3 million over the same three-month period of 2024.

However, sales of medical marijuana are declining.

MMJ sales totaled $64.7 million over the December 2024-February 2025 period.

That represents a significant decline from the $78.4 million in MMJ sales registered in the December 2023-February 2024 time frame.

It’s still too early to tell if annual sales will decline after several years of steady growth.

Illinois said in February that the state exceeded $2 billion in total marijuana sold in 2024,  a 2.5% overall increase in sales from 2023.

According to state data for 2024, adult-use retailers reached $1.72 billion in sales and MMJ dispensaries hit $285.1 million.

Also as of February, Illinois had 244 adult-use stores in operation, according to the office of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, with 121 additional social equity stores in various stages of the approval pipeline.