Legal retail sales of cannabis can begin on January 1 in Montana. They’ve written a law that is pretty much best practices garnered from the experiences of other states.
The medical licensees will be the first to hold retail licenses which is always a good idea if a state has a working medical program. That means the number of stores will be small, but the state isn’t a particularly big market. Tourism won’t be a big portion of the market, but they will serve a lot of neighboring illegal states. Some sales will move from Spokane to the state.
Taxes on retail sales will be as much as 23%, a fairly low number compared to other states.
They also have a 35% THC limit on flower. That’s a high number, but can be exceeded easily if desired, and will certainly encourage cheating and developing work-arounds. A few states have tried this, or discussed it, and it indicates ignorance of the details of how the industry actually works. With time and experience, this will likely be dropped down the road.