Customers purchase recreational marijuana at the Cultivate dispensary on the first day of legal sales in Leicester in 2019. Photo by Steven Senne | Associated Press

Marijuana retail stores in Massachusetts generated nearly $24 million worth of sales within the first two months of the state becoming the latest to license and regulate retail pot, regulators said Tuesday.

The handful of dispensaries licensed by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission to sell recreational marijuana reported aggregate gross sales of $23.8 million through Jan. 20, according to the agency, two months to the day since the Bay State became the first on the East Coast to let adults legally purchase the plant for non-medical purposes.

Recreational marijuana sold at licensed dispensaries is taxed by the state at a rate of 17 percent, putting Massachusetts on course to collect more than $4 million from the first two months of retail sales.

State regulators previously reported that recreational marijuana sales surpassed $10.6 million between Nov. 20 and Dec. 20, including over $400,000 in sales during their first day of catering to retail customers.

Customers spent $3.36 million at recreational marijuana dispensaries during the week ending Jan. 20, according to the regulator’s statistics.

Nine dispensaries are currently licensed to sell recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, according to the state Cannabis Control Commission.