Image: Katie Harp
The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission has released sales data for Q4 2022. Combined medical and recreational sales for the period, at $182.4 million, are up 2.6% from Q3 2022’s combined medical and adult use sales of $177.7 million.
Q4 2022 adult use sales, at $132.5 million, were up 13.6% from from Q3 2022 sales of $116.8 million and are up 66.2% from Q2 2022, the first quarter in which adult use cannabis was available.
Medical sales fell by 18.4% in Q4 2022, to $49.9 million from $61.1 million in Q3 2022.
Cannabis prices – mostly recently reported at $280 per ounce at retail ($4,480 per retail pound) – appear high compared to other states, but the medical market sets price as operators in that sector were the first to expand into the adult use market.
2022 combined adult use and medical sales were almost $555 million with $328.8 million from the adult use market. New Jersey’s market is still young, but the expectation is that sales will continue to climb and prices will start to retreat as more businesses open and competition heats up. Even now, though, Q4 data suggests that registered patients are already shifting to making purchases as adult use consumers.
New York issued cannabis excise tax data allowing us to extrapolate retail sales for fiscal year 2023. The table below reflects monthly sales for 2022 and 2023. While the first licensed storefront did not open until the final days of 2022, beginning in late November licensed retailers were permitted to deliver product to consumers ahead of their physical outlets opening.
With seven stores open – the eighth store opened just this week – total sales for 2023 are now $9.3 million. March 2023 sales were just over $9 million with significantly lesser amounts across the remaining months. While month-on-month comparisons are not yet meaningful, the pace of pickup in sales with just seven stores open for retail business signals strong underlying consumer demand.
*Editor’s Note: The estimated sales figures contained in the table are extrapolated from tax collections reported by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. Given that this is the first tax data made available, it may be revised by officials. Cannabis Benchmarks is working to confirm the accuracy of the reported data and will update the figures at a later time if necessary.