Pricing
Why your $35 eighth costs $45 at the register.
Illinois cannabis is one of the highest-taxed legal markets in the country. Between state taxes, county taxes, city taxes, and a tiered excise tax that depends on what's in the product, the price you see on the shelf is rarely the price you pay. The total markup at checkout runs between 26% and 45% of the shelf price, depending on what you bought and where you bought it.
Most consumers find this out at the register. We'd rather you find out before you drive.
What's actually on your receipt
Here's every tax that lands on a cannabis purchase in Illinois, in the order they're calculated.
Cannabis Cultivation Privilege Tax — 7%. Paid by the grower at the wholesale level. You don't see this on your receipt, but it's already baked into the shelf price. It's part of why Illinois cannabis costs more than Michigan or Missouri to start with.
Cannabis Purchaser Excise Tax — 10%, 20%, or 25%. This is the big one. The rate depends on the product:
- 10% on cannabis flower and pre-rolls with 35% THC or less. Most of the flower on the shelf.
- 20% on cannabis-infused products — edibles, tinctures, drinks, topicals.
- 25% on cannabis with more than 35% THC — concentrates, most vape carts, high-potency flower.
A $35 eighth of 28% THC flower gets a 10% excise tax. A $35 vape cart gets a 25% excise tax. The same shelf price isn't the same out-the-door.
State Retailers' Occupation Tax — 6.25%. The standard Illinois sales tax. Applies on top of the excise tax, not the shelf price — which means the excise tax gets taxed too.
County Cannabis Retailers' Occupation Tax — up to 3%. Counties can impose this independently. Peoria County, McLean County, Sangamon County, Champaign County, and Tazewell County (covering East Peoria and Pekin) have all adopted the maximum 3% rate.
Municipal Cannabis Retailers' Occupation Tax — up to 3%. Cities can stack their own on top of the county. All nine dispensary-active Central Illinois cities run at the maximum 3% rate. Combined county-plus-city cannabis-specific add-on: 6% in every Central IL market.
Local sales tax — varies. An additional municipal sales tax (separate from the cannabis-specific tax) of 2.75%–3.50% across our nine cities, on top of the 6.25% state ROT. Springfield, Bloomington, Normal, and Peoria Heights sit at 3.50%; Peoria and Urbana at 2.75%.
Worked example — $35 eighth in East Peoria
Listed price: $35.00 (28% THC flower, 10% excise tier).
| Tax | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Cannabis Excise (≤35% THC tier) | 10% | $3.50 |
| State Retailers' Occupation Tax | 6.25% | $2.41 |
| Tazewell County Cannabis ROT | 3.00% | $1.16 |
| East Peoria Municipal Cannabis ROT | 3.00% | $1.16 |
| Local sales tax | 3.25% | $1.25 |
| Total tax | $9.47 | |
| Out-the-door | $44.47 |
That's an effective tax rate of 27.1% on flower in East Peoria — toward the lower end of the spectrum. On the same $35 shelf price for a vape cart in the same city, the excise jumps from 10% to 25% and the out-the-door climbs to $50.53 — an effective rate of 44.4%. Same dispensary, same shelf price, completely different total. Cook County (Chicago) on the same vape cart lands closer to 45%.
What this means for shopping
If you're buying flower under 35% THC, you're at the bottom of the tax stack. If you're buying concentrate or vape, you're at the top. Driving 30 minutes between two Central IL counties only saves a fraction of a percent today (the cannabis ROTs are maxed in every Central IL county we cover) — the bigger lever is the tier choice. Shopping the right tier saves real money.
Tax rates current as of 2026-05-01. Sources: state excise and 6.25% state sales tax from the Illinois Department of Revenue cannabis tax page; per-city Municipal and per-county Cannabis ROTs from the IL DOR rate publications and verified against the most recent quarterly bulletin (FY 2026-06, effective Jan 1 2026); per-city general sales tax verified per city via salestaxhandbook.com.