Cannabis sales climb every summer, and 2025 data makes the pattern impossible to miss. Across U.S. and Canadian legal markets, June through August produced elevated sales in portable and social products, led by pre-rolls and beverages.
The takeaway is simple: warm weather sells weed. Retailers stock differently for it, states see their top months during it, and one product category swings harder than any other.
Summer is when the biggest markets do their best business
Colorado tells the clearest story. July and August 2025 were the top two months of the year, combining for more than $231 million in marijuana sales, according to Colorado Department of Revenue figures reported by Westword.[1]
Missouri showed the same climb. Daily sales averages rose each month: $4.17 million per day in June, $4.18 million in July, and $4.21 million in August. August was the state's third-highest month of the year, behind only March and a record-setting May.[2]
Nationally, BDSA tracked $2.20 billion in July 2025 sales across 15 markets, up 6.3% from a year earlier.[3]
Beverages swing hardest of any category
No product moves more sharply by season than cannabis drinks. In New York, beverage sales jumped from $341,000 in February 2025 to a peak of $708,000 in July, more than doubling before softening through fall.
Photo: Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS/Newscom
Amigos cannabis-infused cocktails and sodas in 10mg and 50mg THC doses per can are shown in the warehouse at Funky Buddha Brewery in Oakland Park, Fla., on Thursday, April 16, 2026.
The pattern held in Canada too. Retailers running hundreds of stores reported beverages reliably peak from June through August.
That said, beverages stay a small slice of the pie. Andy Palalas, chief marketing officer at Canna Cabana operator High Tide, said beverages run about one and a half percent of sales under his banner, roughly a quarter the size of the edibles category.
Pre-rolls are the real summer engine
If beverages swing the hardest, pre-rolls drive the most volume. Five independent sources confirmed pre-rolls as the dominant summer growth category.
Palalas was direct about it: "Pre-roll is really what we see surging in the summer. Pre-rolls had a huge summer this year: it reached all-time highs in June, July, August of this year, even September. And we've seen that reliably pretty much every year."
Ashton Faulkner, regional manager at Alberta's 42-location Plantlife chain, put it plainly: "Pre-rolls are always popular, but we see a spike in sales in the summer months."
New York pre-roll sales grew 34% from about $7.1 million in February to $9.5 million in April, then held elevated through summer.
The seasonal flip: vapes own the winter
The summer surge has a mirror image. As pre-rolls and beverages climb in warm months, vaporizer sales take over once the weather turns cold.
Eric Chittim, supply chain VP at Ontario's True North Cannabis, summed up the cycle: "Wintertime would be heavy disposables and vapes and the summertime is high flower sales."
That flip shows up on the balance sheet. Ascend Wellness Holdings blamed a 2.2% retail revenue dip in early 2026 on "post-holiday seasonality," the predictable cooldown after the winter peak.
What this means for you
If you buy cannabis, expect crowded shelves and more pre-roll and beverage promotions through August. Prices on flower-based products may dip as supply rises, since the Nevada market study notes large harvests in early summer.[4] If you prefer a dry herb vaporizer, this is the season flower volume is highest and freshest.
Summer 2026 is set to be the strongest yet
The legal map keeps expanding. 24 states plus D.C. now allow recreational use, and 53% of Americans live in a state with legal recreational cannabis, per Pew Research Center.
Photo: Jesse Paul/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
People walk by The Santa Fe Dispensary, a marijuana dispensary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
Several markets enter their first or second full summer of adult-use sales. Ohio grew from 125 dispensary doors in early 2025 to 190-plus doors by early 2026. Minnesota launched retail in September 2025 and faces its first full summer. Delaware also opened during 2025.
Demand is rising alongside supply. SAMHSA's 2024 survey found marijuana past-year use climbed to 22.3%, up from 19.0% in 2021, equal to 64.2 million past-year users.[5]
One number captures the season best. In Canada, July 1, Canada Day, has now passed 4/20 as the single highest-grossing cannabis sales day of the year. Watch the monthly state reports from Missouri, Colorado, and Ohio this summer. If the pattern holds, they will set the pace again.
