Less than three months after Arizona voters went to the polls and voted to legalize marijuana for all adults over 21, recreational weed sales began at some of the state’s existing medical dispensaries. On Friday, January 22, 2021, the first recreational sales began in Arizona, making it the fastest of all 15 states to legalize to go from voter approval to sales. The previous fastest rollout of recreational sales was in Illinois, which took just less than six months.
As of Friday, the state had approved 86 recreational licenses of the approximately 120 existing medical dispensaries. While that number had been approved within the last week, not all were ready to begin recreational sales right away. About 40 pot shops are open for recreational as of this writing, with others planning to launch their recreational sales in the coming weeks and months. The Arizona Recreational Pot Shops Directory will be updated as more medical dispensaries begin adult-use sales.
