Montana Cannabis
Market Intelligence Report

Montana's cannabis market delivered a record year in 2025, with the Department of Revenue tabulating $327 million in total sales — about 90% of it adult-use — even as average prices declined. The record came alongside nearly $60 million in 2025 tax revenue, and four years after legalization took effect in January 2022, cumulative sales have now surpassed $1 billion.

The adult-use channel has been the overwhelming driver of both sales and tax revenue: cumulative adult-use tax collections (~$207 million) dwarf the medical program's (under $10 million) since legalization, reflecting both the adult-use channel's larger market share and its five-times-higher 20% tax rate versus the medical program's 4%.

Montana's relatively small population makes its $327 million record sales year especially notable on a per-capita basis, suggesting strong consumer adoption alongside likely tourist-driven demand given the state's recreational tourism economy. (Official, Census ACS 2024)

The Montana Department of Revenue's Cannabis Control Division regulates licensing and compliance for the state's medical and adult-use cannabis markets. Montana currently imposes no statewide cap on the number of cannabis business licenses, with applications reviewed on a rolling, first-come, first-served basis; the next dedicated adult-use license application window opens July 1, 2027.

Montana's primary structural policy lever has been its differentiated tax rate structure rather than a dedicated social equity grant program.

Montana's cultivation, processing, and retail supply chain has scaled to support a record $327 million sales year, with several hundred active licenses operating under a rolling, uncapped licensing system. Falling average prices despite record sales volume suggest the supply chain has kept pace with — or outpaced — demand growth.

Montana's record sales volume amid falling prices points to a growing, increasingly price-conscious consumer base, likely supplemented by recreational tourism demand given the state's outdoor recreation economy.

The Cannabis Control Division does not publish an official county-level sales ranking; the table below is a modeled estimate based on population and dispensary density.

Costs vary between Montana's larger metro markets (Missoula, Billings, Bozeman) and its smaller rural markets.

Vendor demand signal tracks which product and service categories Montana operators are actively sourcing this quarter.

Montana applies a 20% excise tax on adult-use cannabis sales — five times the 4% rate applied to medical marijuana — and allows counties to add a local-option tax of up to 3% on medical, adult-use, or both. This structure has driven cumulative adult-use tax revenue of roughly $207 million since 2022, versus under $10 million from the medical program.

Montana borders two medical-only states and two states with no legal cannabis program, giving it meaningful cross-border demand potential, particularly from Wyoming and Idaho.

Montana's several hundred active cannabis business licensees support a direct workforce that has grown alongside record 2025 sales. The Cannabis Control Division does not publish a single consolidated current statewide employment figure. (Not Available at the official statewide level.)

Montana's adult-use program does not feature a dedicated statewide social equity license lottery comparable to several peer states; its licensing model instead relies on an uncapped, rolling first-come, first-served structure open to qualifying applicants statewide. (Not Available: no current dedicated statewide social equity license count to report.)

Montana does not publish an official statewide illicit cannabis market size estimate. Falling average legal prices amid record 2025 sales volume plausibly reflect, in part, the legal market narrowing the price gap with illicit alternatives, though this cannot be confirmed without official data. (Not Available.)

This report blends official Department of Revenue data with reputable industry and policy media reporting where no single official figure exists.

This report compiles data from the Montana Department of Revenue's Cannabis Control Division, federal demographic sources, and reputable industry and policy media.