The day before Thanksgiving is Green Wednesday, when deals on cannabis-related items will be bountiful ahead of the holiday.

Green Wednesday, like Cyber Monday or Small Business Saturday, is a spin on the traditional Black Friday and an opportunity for cannabis dispensaries to capitalize on the holiday excitement and move product.

The day before Thanksgiving is a big day for bars, and since the legalization of cannabis in many states, companies noticed that sales spiked the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, said Eileen Gillis, director of Retail Marketing at Thrive Wellness, a dispensary chain with locations in Annapolis and Upper Marlboro.

“We continue to see the cannabis industry follow the same patterns as the beverage industry,” said Gillis. “A lot of people are now turning to cannabis as an alternative to alcohol, you wake up the next day without the hangover so industry wide, a really big day.”

“It’s something that is becoming socially acceptable, and the family discussions, there are families that are sharing cannabis at Thanksgiving across three or four generations,” said Lindsay Ward, director of Retail Operations for Culta, a dispensary chain with locations in Baltimore, Columbia and Urbana.

It’s the second biggest day for cannabis sales, after April 20, better known as 4/20. Weedmaps, a web development platform for marijuana businesses, saw a 43% increase in orders on Green Wednesday 2023 compared to the Wednesday of the week prior.

Cannabis for medical use has been legal in Maryland since 2014, and since recreational cannabis was legalized in July 2023, adults 21 and older can purchase or home-grow recreational marijuana. In Maryland, 13.3% of adults have used cannabis in the last 30 days, according to the state Department of Health.

Cannabis consumption has skyrocketed since legalization. The state’s legal cannabis industry, including recreational and medical marijuana sales, reached $1.1 billion in sales within the first year of the adult-use market, and daily marijuana use recently outpaced daily drinking in the U.S. Average monthly visits to Emergency Rooms involving cannabis are up 4.8% from last year, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

Shad Ewart, assistant professor of business at Anne Arundel Community College, specializes in the emerging business and entrepreneurship in the cannabis industry in Maryland.

“There are some very harsh difficulties in the cannabis industry,” said Ewart.

Dispensaries have different accounting regulations than traditional businesses, causing high expenses, Ewart said. Additionally, the state has attempted to get Maryland’s cannabis industry off the ground equitability, but the first round of licenses went to overwhelming non-diverse business owners.

“It’s not equitable. It is highly skewed towards rich white people. The reason being … that [in] the first round of licensing, there were no special considerations given to what we now call social equity candidates,” said Ewart.

Two hundred and five prospective businesses were selected at random earlier this year through the state’s social equity lottery for cannabis licenses.

Serious cannabis consumers know dispensaries tend to cycle through weekly deals.

“What you have in the state of Maryland is extremely sophisticated consumers of cannabis products that are literally going website to website, finding where the good deals are,” said Ewart.

To take advantage of Green Wednesday, shoppers should monitor their go-to dispensary’s social media for deals and consider pre-ordering online to avoid their favorite product selling out.

Thrive Wellness is celebrating Green Wednesday all week, from Nov. 22 through Dec. 2, with sales up to 70% off. The promotion will offer a variety of deals at different discounts and price points, including price drops and bundle deals.

Culta, is offering 30% discounts store wide at all three locations, along with gifts with purchases over a certain amount and pop-up desks with ambassadors from specific brands.

“You have a dedicated professional for that brand that you can ask questions,” said Ward. “It’s another way for brand recognition, and then to get information about the brand educationally out there.”

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