Legal cannabis sales in Maryland have topped $1.1 billion since the recreational pot market opened up on July 1, 2023, state officials said Wednesday.

Gov. Wes Moore’s office, which has been overseeing much of the state’s implementation of last year’s cannabis reform act, said Wednesday that recreational sales from July 2023 through June 2024 totaled more than $700 million and medical sales totaled nearly $400 million.

“Our new adult-use cannabis market isn’t only generating extraordinary economic activity — it’s also helping us build new pathways to work, wages, and wealth for all,” Moore said in a news release.

The first nine months of legalization netted the state around $41.4 million in revenue from a 9% tax on recreational cannabis purchases, Comptroller Brooke Lierman’s office said last week. Around a third of that revenue is placed into a state fund that is then distributed to communities based on how heavily they were impacted by cannabis prohibition.

Much of Maryland’s cannabis reform law aims to undo the lasting impacts of the decadeslong U.S. campaign to curb drug abuse through criminal enforcement, which amplified cycles of poverty by incarcerating millions of Americans — disproportionately Black, Latino and other racial minorities — with criminal records for drug offenses.

An additional lottery drawing held by the state’s cannabis administration last week brought the total number of “social equity” licenses — authorizations to grow, process and sell marijuana in the state issued to potential businesses with disproportionately impacted ownership — to 205. A workforce development program run by the state will start helping to train new workers for the growing cannabis industry, with priority given to people who were charged with cannabis-related offenses.

Though Maryland voters overwhelmingly approved of legalizing cannabis, a recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll showed that support might have waned in the first year. Some localities have tried to tighten rules around where cannabis dispensaries can be located, and one even floated the concept of again outlawing cannabis. Some officials and experts remain concerned about certain long-term health impacts of the legal market. To address some of those concerns, the state has launched a public health campaign focused on educating Maryland residents about issues like intoxicated driving and safe storage.