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Massachusetts Hits $10 Billion Marijuana Sales Milestone, With Top Official Saying Consumption Lounges Will Bolster Industry In 2026
Massachusetts reached a marijuana sales milestone in 2025, with $1.65 billion in adult-use sales for the year—bringing the state’s total legal cannabis purchases to over $10 billion since the recreational market launched, officials announced on Thursday.
A top regulator also said that the forthcoming addition of social consumption lounges could give the industry a further boost in 2026, and that President Donald Trump’s directive to federally reschedule cannabis will create more research opportunities in the state.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) released the latest data on Thursday, while indicating that officials anticipate an even higher sales record this year as the state prepares to launch a new license category or social consumption lounges.
When combining recreational and medical sales for 2025, the state saw about $1.8 billion in legal marijuana purchases for the year. Overall since 2018, there have been about $10.8 billion in combined medical and recreational cannabis sales.
“The cannabis industry in Massachusetts continued to mature in 2025 with the number of cannabis businesses reaching the highest point since adult-use sales began in 2018,” CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien said in a press release. “While gross sales remain high, the Commission will look to remove regulatory hurdles in 2026 through the new Red Tape Removal Committee, which will help licensees stabilize and plan for the future as the industry continues to evolve.”
Travis Ahern, executive director of CCC, said that beyond the social consumption lounge expansion, Trump’s order to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) will bring benefits to the state.
“Commissioners and staff are hard at work preparing for a potential expansion of the industry related to social consumption and the prospect of new research opportunities should the federal government reschedule cannabis,” he said. “With critical changes on the horizon, the Commission remains focused on adapting its policies, protocols, and oversight in a way that continues building out a safe, equitable, and effective cannabis industry for Massachusetts.”
Massachusetts marijuana retailers recorded a new annual record of 46.3 million transactions in 2025, CCC said, which is roughly 3.4 million more than in the prior year.
In the background, Massachusetts election officials have scheduled a hearing to investigate a complaint challenging the signature gathering process for a proposed ballot initiative to roll back the state’s marijuana legalization law.
That came about two weeks after the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division confirmed that the anti-cannabis campaign collected enough valid signatures to send the measure to lawmakers for consideration ahead of potentially being placed on the November ballot.
As detailed in the recent complaint, the campaign has been marred with controversy over allegedly misleading signature gathering tactics. There have been claims that paid petitioners used fake cover letters for other ballot measures on issues like affordable housing and same-day voter registration.
The state attorney general’s office has confirmed it’s received complaints to that end. And an association of state marijuana businesses urged voters to report to local officials if they observe any instances of “fraudulent message” or other deceitful petitioning tactics. The campaign has denied the allegations.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s (D) office—which cleared the campaign for signature gathering in September—has stressed to voters the importance of reading their summary, which is required to go at the top of the signature form, before signing any petitions.
The Massachusetts legislature received the initiative for consideration on Wednesday when the 2026 session kicked off. Unless it’s invalidated, lawmakers have until May 5 to act on the proposal. If they choose not to enact it legislatively, the campaign would need to go through another round of petitioning and get at least 12,429 certified signatures by July 1 to make the November ballot.
Meanwhile, the head of Massachusetts’s marijuana regulatory agency recently suggested that the measure to effectively recriminalize recreational cannabis sales could imperil tax revenue that’s being used to support substance misuse treatment efforts and other public programs.
Massachusetts lawmakers recently assembled a bicameral conference committee to reach a deal on a bill that would double the legal marijuana possession limit for adults and revise the regulatory framework for the state’s adult-use cannabis market.
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CCC has also launched an online platform aimed at helping people find jobs, workplace training and networking opportunities in the state’s legal cannabis industry.
State lawmakers have also been considering setting tighter restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived products and a plan to allow individual entities to control a larger number of cannabis establishments.
Also in Massachusetts, legislators who were working on a state budget butted heads with CCC officials, who’ve said they can’t make critical technology improvements without more money from the legislature.
Massachusetts lawmakers additionally approved a bill to establish a pilot program for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics. And two committees have separately held hearings to discuss additional psilocybin-related measures.
Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.
