Oregon’s struggling cannabis industry endured another difficult year in 2023, and there’s no indication conditions will ease in the foreseeable future.

Prices remain severely depressed, under $4 a gram for 11 consecutive months. Sales fell by nearly 4% last year. And harvests remain elevated, which means supply is likely to continue outstripping demand — making life tough for those who grow and sell recreational marijuana.

“Given these market conditions of oversupply, (retail) saturation, and stable consumer demand, low prices make it difficult for businesses to be profitable,” the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis wrote in its most recent report this month.

The market bloomed in the first years after Oregon voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2014. Sales began in 2015 and climbed for four subsequent years, with a jump that brought sales above $1 billion for the first time in 2020 as people embraced new forms of entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sales fell sharply in 2022 and 2023, dropping by 19% as market conditions returned to more normal patterns. But since Oregon put no limits on how many businesses may grow or sell cannabis, and since marijuana grows like a weed — so to speak — in many parts of Oregon, the state quickly had a cannabis glut.

The marijuana industry has long hoped that federal legalization, or some half-step that allowed cannabis to be sold across state lines, could create a national market for Oregon’s crop.

But while individual states continue to move toward legalizing marijuana, changes on the national level appear unlikely anytime soon given the intense partisan divide in Congress.

Oregon farmers harvested 9.6 million pounds of marijuana last year. That’s down from 2021 but still far more than the state’s residents are buying — state analysts estimate demand for marijuana is a third lower than what the industry is supplying.

The resulting fall in retail prices has been great for consumers but has produced a persistent oversupply. And big harvests each fall mean product carries over into the following year. Accumulated inventory could keep prices depressed indefinitely.

Marijuana businesses are struggling as a result, and they topped the list of delinquent taxpayers the Oregon Department of Revenue released last year.

And the taxes Oregon collects on marijuana sales are down, too. State economists expect $311 million in marijuana tax revenue during the current two-year budget cycle, down $7 million from their last forecast in November.

Most of the tax money goes to drug treatment, with smaller amounts going to schools, police and local governments.