illinois recreational cannabis sales saw a 46 sequential drop in august to 1294 million after breaking a record in july with the largest monthly sales yeartodate reported new cannabis venture’s alan brochstein in july retailers sold a total of 3251062 cannabis products worth 135658 as per data from the illinois department of finance and professional regulation so far in 2022 sales totaled 88626 million representing an increase of 16 yearoveryear in 2021 recreational cannabis sales amounted to 138 billion being up 106 compared to 2020 despite a slight drop in august the prairie states is taking in more tax dollars from cannabis receipts than alcohol in 2021 recreational cannabis taxes exceeded liquor taxes by nearly 100 million the state puts aside a chunk of the cannabis tax revenue to support programs created to reinvest in communities most harmed by the drug war meanwhile illinois recently issued 185 total adultuse cannabis dispensary licenses to social equity applicants including three additional conditional adult use dispensing organization licenses that were handed out by gov jb pritzker and the illinois department of financial and professional regulation idfpr to applicants who were selected in lotteries held in the summer of 2021 “with all 185 conditional licenses now in the hands of social equity applicants we have reached a tremendous milestone” pritzker said in a press release ”now we look forward to getting these businesses up and running creating jobs in the communities most harmed by the failed drug war and cementing ownership in illinois’ cannabis industry as the most diverse in the nation