Even taking into account the extra day compared to the prior month, several markets exhibited strong growth, especially those in the East, which tend to be dominated by MSOs.
BDSA provides coverage for the relatively mature markets of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon.
Arizona transitioned to adult-use in late January last year, but this is the ninth month that BDSA has included adult-use sales.
Sales of $304 million increased 5% from November but declined 3% from a year ago, a substantially slower pace than the steep declines from August to October and similar to the 4% decline in November.
While this rate of growth was worse than the 2% decline in November, it was consistent with October’s decline and better than the 12-14% declines from July to September.
The pandemic continues to challenge the Nevada market, which, at $64.2 million, fell 14% from a year ago and 3% from November.
The annual rate of decline expanded in Oregon to 8% as sales increased 3% from November to $88.3 million.
In the newer markets, the annual rate of growth picked up in two of the three markets for which BDSA provides data.
The relatively small Maryland market continues to struggle to grow, with sales of $46.4 million increasing just 3% from a year ago and 6% sequentially.
The Massachusetts market was one of the strongest as it set a record in December, with sales of $158 million growing 12% sequentially and 48% from a year ago, the best annual growth since August.