[The following article is from our “High-Brr-Nation Cannabis Guide” which is packed with fun, interesting stories about surviving the winter with weed. Check ’em out here!—eds.]
This pandemic has taught us at least three things:
• Teachers deserve twice what we pay them.
• Americans have, at best, a rudimentary understanding of how to properly wash their hands.
• Oregonians found the lockdown to be far more bearable with the addition of cannabis. TONS of cannabis, literally.
It also may have served as a tipping point in legalization, gaining support for both its ability to relax and soothe the savage homebound beast, while raising revenue for programs that help those with addiction issues, many of whom found their challenges exacerbated by the virus.
Pacific Wonderlandians have always enjoyed their weed. We were the first to decriminalize small amounts back in 1973, legalized medical cannabis in 1998, and passed recreational cannabis in 2014. The sales from that program grew modestly, until March of 2020.
That’s when Governor Brown announced that Oregonians needed to keep their damn asses at home. Faced with the numerous challenges of doing so, people began purchasing cannabis in earnest, the process of which was eased by a loosening of rules to allow curbside pick up and numerous dispensaries offering delivery.
In March 2020, regulated cannabis sales jumped 20 percent. In April 2020, those sales increased to $89 million, a 45 percent increase from April 2019. May 2020 gave us the first month of sales ever to top $100 million, which continued throughout the summer, hitting a record high of $106 million in July. 2020 recreational cannabis sales were up 38 percent to more than $1 billion, up from $795 million in 2019, and the first time the state sold that much cannabis in a year. Way to toke up, team.
