Seven out of the 11 states had their biggest year of marijuana tax revenues on record, according to an NBC News analysis of state revenues.
Sales figures for Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington were still pending for last quarter.
Eighteen states have legalized recreational-use marijuana as of Thursday. Connecticut, New Mexico, New York and Virginia legalized sales in 2021. And six states, including Vermont, Montana, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Connecticut, have begun or plan to begin sales this year.
Virginia won’t begin legal sales until 2024; plans in Washington, D.C., are in limbo, pending action from Congress.
Of the five states with the biggest revenues, recreational marijuana has been legal for at least eight years in two of them.
Washington and Colorado both started sales in 2014. That year, Colorado brought in an estimated $46 million, growing 819 percent to $423 million last year. In 2014, Washington took in about $22 million in marijuana taxes, and that number grew to $480 million in 2021.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
