🔒Five years into legal cannabis sales, Maine sales plateau

More than five years into legal sales of adult-use cannabis in Maine, sales hit a plateau last year. Sales of adult-use marijuana in Maine slowed to a rate of 1.2%, with sales of $246.8 million in 2025, compared to $243.9 million in 2024, according to the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy. "Indeed, the market seems to be flat now," Jacques Santucci, of Portland-based Opus Consulting, told Mainebiz. "I would not be surprised if it stays like this, maybe down a bit, with prices coming down and some companies closing or changing directions." The average price per gram of adult-use cannabis has dropped each of the past five years, from $12.75 in 2021 to $6.62 in 2025, according to the Office of Cannabis Policy's annual report issued earlier this year. Sales of adult-use cannabis remain a key source of tax revenue for the state, generating $43.7 million last year, according to the annual report. There were 216 licensed retailers of adult-use products at year's end.

Retail outlook

Retailers are not only battling for market share but are ever-conscious of regulatory hurdles. One observer says that the industry operates under "razor-thin margins," in part because of IRS code 280E, which prevents state-legal cannabis retailers from taking business deductions on rent, payroll and marketing and so on. "It's not uncommon to see store closures or larger companies coming in and absorbing smaller operators, given price compression, razor-thin margins due to 280E, and other market conditions that make the industry volatile to operate in," said Mike Mejer, the founder of Green Lane Communication, which works with cannabis retailers. "From what I see working in the industry, I do believe there could be a shakeout in the market regarding M&A and consolidation, especially with markets like this where sales of adult-use products are relatively flat [year-over-year], while the overall market is down by 3%," he said. The better operators will be the ones that survive any shakeout. "It takes an incredibly skilled and thick-skinned operator to run a successful cannabis retail business through market ups, downs and never-ending regulatory uncertainty," Mejer said.

Sales of medical products

Santucci said another trend he's tracking is that Maine's cannabis sales are nearly evenly split between medical and adult-use products. "This is very unique to Maine. In most states, [adult use] takes over medical rapidly and medical ends up being a low part of the entire market," Santucci said. Last year, sales of medical cannabis totaled $253.95 million, down 6% from $269.5 million in 2024, according to data tracked by Opus Consulting, which consults with cannabis companies. While overall cannabis sales totaled nearly half a billion dollars last year, $499.2 million, it was the first year where sales declined, in this case by 3%, after hitting a peak of $513.4 million in 2024.