States collected $3.55 billion in cannabis excise taxes

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What happened: Thirty states and D.C. pulled in an estimated $3.55 billion in cannabis taxes between July 2025 and June 2026, according to the Census Bureau. That's up 15.7% from fiscal 2022, when the bureau started tracking the data.

Eleven states entered the market in that stretch, most recently Alabama with medical sales in May.

What's driving it: Washington and Montana lead per capita at more than $50 per resident, thanks to retail excise rates of 37% and 20%.

Minnesota more than doubled its haul to $34.44 million after raising its rate to 15% and issuing 324 new licenses. Delaware, which started collecting in August 2025, is still ramping up.

Why it matters: The bureau's own framing is that states are trying to raise revenue without pricing consumers into the illicit market.

California is the cautionary tale: Revenue fell from $879 million to $528 million after it killed its cultivation tax and legal prices collapsed.

What's next: Every new market adds to the total, but the tax-rate tinkering never stops.

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“The answer speaks directly to the value of the platform Aurora shareholders already own. Aurora has spent years building EU-GMP cultivation capacity, regulatory expertise and leading positions in key European medical cannabis markets. Curaleaf cannot replicate the foundation of our international growth strategy, and they know it.”

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