As soon as Illinois legalized recreational marijuana, hundreds of people braved the January weather to wait in line in front of specialized stores. One of the very first people past the doors on day one was Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who bought a tin of edible gummies. In the first five days of legal pot sales, dispensaries have sold more than $10.8 million worth of it, the office of Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced, and more than 270,000 individual purchases were recorded. In just the first day, Illinois weed sales had reached $3.2 million.
These are the highest sales ever recorded for the launch of legal recreational pot in any state thus far. The only comparable contender is Oregon, which legalized marijuana through an emergency bill one year earlier than initially planned, allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to sell to everyone instead of limiting sales to licensed recreational retail shops. At the time, there were more than 250 medical marijuana dispensaries running in the state, giving Oregon a sharp advantage over Illinois, which only had 37 stores selling recreational marijuana on legalization day. Despite that edge, Oregon saw slightly lower sales than Illinois, reaching the $10.8 million figure in six days rather than five
Picture Source: Stock Photo Courtesy Get Stencil
