After a slow initial launch to its adult-use marijuana market, New York in 2024 saw the number of legal stores nearly triple, according to a new Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) report, fueling total sales for the year of $869 million.

By the end of the year, says OCM’s 2024 Market Report, 260 retail locations were operational statewide, stocking more than 500 brands of product. All told, since the launch of the retail market, licensed stores had sold more than $1 billion in legal marijuana.

Including sales so far in 2025, New York’s legal cannabis market is now close to reaching $1.5 billion worth of purchases.

New York last year “witnessed significant sales growth and a substantial increase in tax revenue generated from licensed cannabis sales,” the new report says, “reinforcing the positive impact of a well-regulated cannabis market.”

“This market report reflects the dynamism of New York’s cannabis industry—an industry that is shifting rapidly as the market matures and encounters both opportunities and challenges,” Felicia A.B. Reid, the office’s acting executive director, said in a statement Tuesday. “But, as ever, OCM is deeply committed to ensuring that the industry is reflective of New Yorkers and creating meaningful and forward-looking opportunities for communities historically affected by cannabis prohibition.”

As for the state’s efforts toward building an equitable cannabis industry, the new state report says that social and economic equity (SEE) applicants hold 55 percent of licenses, including 81 percent of retail dispensary licenses and 58 percent of microbusiness licenses.

2024 Market Report, NY Office of Cannabis Management

Meanwhile operators licensed under the Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program, designed to acknowledge disproportionate enforcement of cannabis laws against some communities, “accounted for 70% of open retailers at the end of 2024,” OCM said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, sales were strongest in densely populated areas, such as Manhattan, Queens and Long Island.

The report is designed to provide regulators at the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) with information necessary to oversee and adjust the state system and promote the “the goals of inclusion, fairness, and sustainability set forth in the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA),” according to an OCM press release.

“The comprehensive data from this report enable us to understand the current state of the market and proactively advance regulatory and policy decisions that enhance the long-term viability of New York’s cannabis sector,” said John Kagia, OCM’s executive deputy director of market policy, innovation and analytics. “With insights on sales trends, product diversification, and consumer behavior, we’re equipping the CCB to support businesses navigating the market’s competitive pressures and evolving demands.”

The market has continued to expand since the end of the year, says OCM’s press release about the new report. As of April of this year, it says, 368 retailers have been licensed statewide, with total sales “nearing $1.5 billion.”

2024 Market Report, NY Office of Cannabis Management

In addition to updates on operational retailers, sales and licensing, the report also touches on market trends such as purchasing behaviors and consumers’ increased use of non-flower products, such as vape products and edibles.

Flower products, including prerolls, accounted for less than half (45 percent) of sales, which the report says reflects “the strong demand for value-added products, including vaporizers, edibles, and concentrates, [which] has grown.”

The findings align in part with a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that found significant decreases in the use of flower, concentrates, oil, tinctures and topicals among U.S. consumers in certain states. That report also found increases in the use of edibles, beverages and vape cartridges.

For those who do by flower in New York, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) buy products in 3.5-gram packages, or an eighth of an ounce.

2024 Market Report, NY Office of Cannabis Management

About 23 percent of flower sales, meanwhile, were of brands owned by state-licensed medical marijuana operators, known in New York as registered organizations (ROs). Prices of flower products from ROs were typically more expensive than those from adult-use brands, especially for larger packages.

As for prerolled joints, most (80 percent) were one gram apiece, with half-gram prerolls (15 percent) making up most of the remainder. Packages with five or more prerolls were most common, making up 60 percent of sales. Single joints made up 33 percent of preroll sales, meanwhile.

2024 Market Report, NY Office of Cannabis Management

The most popular flavors for edibles, meanwhile, were raspberry (7 percent), watermelon lemonade (5 percent), blueberry (5 percent), peach (4 percent) and watermelon (4 percent). Beverages were most popular in cans (78 percent), followed by concentrated drops (9 percent), powder (6 percent), tea bags (5 percent) or shots (2 percent).

Among the recommendations in the new OCM report include continuing to educate consumers about the legal market.

“Most of New York’s legal cannabis demand will come from consumers transitioning from the illicit market to the regulated market, not from new consumers who began using cannabis after it was legalized,” it says. “The legal market is still in its early stages of growth, having captured less than one-fifth of the estimated total addressable demand in the State.”

“Many consumers are unfamiliar with the products and brands they are encountering in the regulated market and rely on their experiences in the illicit market to inform their product purchases,” it continues. “Consumer education can therefore play a critical role in informing customer purchase decisions and enabling consumers to better understand the effects and experiences associated with regulated products.”

Ahead of the 4/20 holiday earlier this month, regulators rolled out a “higher education” campaign meant to provide adults with information about how to “make informed, responsible decisions about cannabis,” including how to locate state-licensed retailers.

The office also advises that “Continued enforcement against the illicit market is critical to building a health regulated market,” pointing to what it describes as successful enforcement efforts in 2024. Last spring, for example, officials in New York City launched Operation Padlock, an enforcement initiative meant to shutter illegal storefronts. Within months, licensed shops that were open before the operation began saw sales climb 105 percent, according to an OCM survey.

OCM also recommends in the new report that all adult-use cultivators—not just ROs and certain others—be permitted to grow marijuana in indoor facilities, though it acknowledged that allowance could increase the industry’s energy footprint.

“Authorizing adult use cultivator licensees to transition to indoor cultivation facilities will address the limited availability of indoor grown flower and increase supply chain stability,” the report says. “This will ensure that all cultivators can grow in the environments best suited for their business models and address the market 61 imbalance created by having only a limited number of growers authorized to grow indoors.”

Big picture, federal policy changes “will shape the next chapter of legal market growth,” officials wrote, though they noted those changes “could still be years away.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), for example, “had indicated that it would consider rescheduling in 2025,” the report says, “however the start of the hearings process has been delayed by procedural challenges.”

Earlier this month, a group of doctors who support drug policy reform withdrew its lawsuit against DEA over the rescheduling process, in part to avoid “more delay” in the already-stalled proceedings, the organization said.

With DEA’s rescheduling process stalled indefinitely—tied up in a separate administrative challenge from pro-reform witnesses—plaintiffs said maintaining the lawsuit “could have resulted in more delay.”

Even if rescheduling proceeds, the OCM report says, the administrative process “will likely take years to finalize as the proposed rules navigate the federal review process and the likely legal challenges that will follow.”

“OCM is working to better understand the full potential implications of federal reform, and to prepare the market for changes that may be necessary under a new federal regime,” it adds. “Where appropriate, OCM will also continue to offer federal policymakers New York’s assessment of how current and proposed federal rules impact the operations and outlook of New York’s legal market.”

Earlier this month in New York, meanwhile, state cannabis regulators and labor officials announced the launch of a workforce training program aimed at “providing comprehensive safety education to workers” in the state’s legal marijuana industry.

Separately, OCM’s press secretary recently indicated the office is working on plans to expand permitting and licensing rules that could allow adults to buy and consume marijuana at movie theaters. Authorizing sales of cannabis products at theaters would set New York apart as it continues to build upon the state’s legalization law.

Days before that, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a pair of companion bills into law that are meant to expand New York’s marijuana farmers market program, allowing for more partnerships between licensed cannabis businesses and standalone “pop-up” events.

New York initially authorized cannabis farmers market events in 2023, aiming to expedite consumers access as traditional retailers were being approved and help producers bring their products directly to market. Last December, Hochul separately signed legislation to revive the program after it sunsetted in January 2024.

The farmers market events as originally authorized were largely responsive to the slow roll-out of New York’s adult-use marijuana program, which faced multiple delays in implementation amid litigation. But the state’s industry has gradually expanded, with officials in January touting $1 billion in total sales since the market launched.

State officials also recently launched a grant program that will award up to $30,000 apiece to retail marijuana businesses to help cover startup costs.

Also, earlier this year, a collective of businesses licensed under the CAURD program called on Hochul to forgive tens of millions of dollars in high-cost loans issued under a governor-created social equity loan fund.

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) said in December that there’s a need to extend financial aid to CAURD license holders, many of whom are struggling under the high-cost loans.

Critics—including the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY—wrote to the governor earlier that month to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes.”

The advocates said at the time that since the departure of the state’s first chief cannabis regulator, Chris Alexander, last may May, state officials had demonstrated a “shift toward corporate interests at the expense of small business, justice-involved entrepreneurs, and Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees who are directly impacted by prior marijuana arrest.”

Last month, regulators also launched a new resource meant to connect licensed marijuana businesses with banks that are willing to work with the industry, even as federal prohibition continues to pose barriers to financial services.

In 2023, the governor signed legislation that aims to make it slightly easier for financial institutions to work with state-licensed cannabis clients.

The law authorized OCM to provide financial institutions with information about marijuana business licensees or applicants, which is meant to ease compliance with reporting requirements. Licensees and applicants would first have to consent to information being shared.

A recent budget proposal from Hochul aims to empower police who claim to smell marijuana to force a driver to take a drug test—a plan that’s drawing pushback not just from reform advocates but also from the state’s Assembly majority leader and the governor-appointed head of OCM.

Meanwhile in New York, the state Senate earlier this month approved a bill to expand housing protections for registered medical marijuana patients, aiming to prevent evictions based solely on their lawful use of cannabis.

Senators this session have also introduced a bill for the 2025 session to broadly decriminalize drug possession.

Several psychedelics bills have also been filed in New York—including one calling for the legalization of certain entheogenic substances such as psilocybin and ibogaine for adults 21 and older.

The governor argued in June, meanwhile, that there’s a direct correlation between stepped-up enforcement and “dramatically” increased legal sales. A report by state officials last year found both “growing pains” and “successful efforts” in New York’s marijuana market launch.

White House Drug Czar Could Endorse Marijuana Legalization Under New Bill To Repeal ‘Ludicrous’ Restriction