Debra Borchardt
The state of California released its tax data for Q2 cannabis sales last week. Tax revenue from the cannabis industry totaled $74,240,257.00 million from April 1, 2018, through June 30, 2018, which includes state cultivation, excise, and sales taxes. It does not include tax revenue collected by each jurisdiction.
According to GreenWave Advisors, that means that the implied recreational retail revenues increased 36% to ~$290M from $213M in Q1. In addition to the retail revenues, the implied wholesale revenues would have reached roughly $29.9M vs $10.7M quarter-over-quarter. “We note while these results fall below expectations, it does not include medical marijuana sales in which sales and excise taxes are excluded,” said Matt Karnes, the founder of GreenWave Advisors.
The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration also noted the excise tax on cannabis generated $43,490,668.00 million in revenue during the second quarter of the calendar year 2018. The cultivation tax generated $4,482,119.00 million, and the sales tax generated $26,267,470.00 million in revenue.
California cannabis retailer MedMen (MMNFF) said on Monday that its stores accounted for roughly six percent of all legal retail sales of cannabis and cannabis products in the second quarter for the state. MedMen said in a statement that its eight stores represent about two percent of all retailers, meaning on average MedMen stores outperform non-MedMen stores by a factor of three.
“The strong growth in tax revenue in the second quarter of the year shows that the legal cannabis industry is delivering on its promise of economic activity and greater public resources to the people of California,” said Adam Bierman, MedMen chief executive officer, and co-founder.
While MedMen is clearly happy with its results, the actual tax receipts are far lower than what the state had projected in the budget proposals. Governor Jerry Brown had estimated that the state would pull in $175 million in the first six months and instead the number was $135.1 million.
GreenWave went on to add that approximately 100,000 medical marijuana cards have been issued by the state since 2004 so Karnes believes that total retail sales are likely considerably much higher with med marijuana included and he estimates that its near $700M for the first half of the year.
“As the regulated market in CA continues to evolve, it will likely experience ongoing sales pressure in the near term. However, we remain optimistic that these “growing pains” will ultimately be resolved to achieve a $7B retail market over the next 5 years,” said Karnes. He went on to add that the average revenue per dispensary for the first half of the year is roughly $300,000 per month.
At the end of June, there were approximately 64 medical only licenses representing 15% of the market and 331 licenses for outlets selling both medical and recreational. At that time there were only 21 recreational only licenses representing 5% of the market.
