Arizona Has Made Almost $1 Billion in Tax Revenue From Legal Marijuana Sales

Taxes derived from the sale of state-regulated recreational cannabis products totaled more than $4.4 billion in 2024 – the highest total ever recorded in a single year, according to an analysis provided by the Marijuana Policy Project.

Cannabis sales generated the greatest amount of tax revenue in California (over $1 billion), followed by Illinois ($578 million), Michigan ($524 million), and Washington ($516 million). Arizona generated $253 million in 2024 and almost $1 billion since launching adult-use marijuana sales in 2021.

Since 2014, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to regulate the adult-use cannabis market, states have generated a combined total of more than $24.7 billion in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana products.

“States with legal, adult-use cannabis sales have allocated tax revenues to a variety of needs, including their General Funds and specific services and programs,” the report’s authors acknowledge. “Cannabis taxes have provided funding for Medicaid, education, school construction, housing, roads, early literacy, bullying prevention, behavioral health, alcohol and drug treatment, veterans’ services, conservation, job training, conviction expungement expenses, and reinvestment in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the war on cannabis, among many others.”

Twenty-four states have enacted legislation legalizing the adult use of cannabis. However, three states – Delaware, Minnesota, and Virginia – have yet to license cannabis retailers.

Separate economic data provided last month by Vangst Staffing and Whitney Economics reports that some 425,000 workers are currently employed full-time by state-licensed cannabis businesses.