Virginia Expedited Sales
Lawmakers are becoming less comfortable with their decision to legalize marijuana without providing a way to buy it. Currently, the only legal way to obtain the drug is to grow it yourself. The medical cannabis industry in Virginia advocated for measures to sell to recreational, but the proposal never made it to the final bill. However, with lawmakers wanting recreational sales to start sooner, a temporary license may be provided. The medical industry is now suggesting that lawmakers provide temporary licenses to sell to recreational customers on the condition that they each serve as an incubator for five new licensees who qualify for a planned social equity program. This would allow the incumbents to provide legal, regulated marijuana to a very underserved state in the medical market. It would also provide significant help to social equity operators who may not have experience in the cannabis market. “It’s worthy of this subcommittee to consider if it can be done while still ensuring robust participation by social equity applicants,” said Adam Ebbin, who chairs the oversight commission.
The entire state of Virginia has a total of FOUR licenses to serve the medical cannabis market. These licenses are owned by Green Thumb, Columbia Care, Jushi, and a private operator. If these temporary licenses are issued, these operators will be set to benefit tremendously from the influx of recreational demand which will come.
Can New York Get back on track?
For nearly five months, political jockeying in Albany over who should lead New York’s legal marijuana industry has essentially halted progress in setting up what‘s expected to become the country’s second-largest recreational cannabis market. But with Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigning in a scandal, advocates who sparred with him on long-awaited cannabis nominations are optimistic that incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul can finally end the impasse. POLITICO reports that the incoming administration sees implementing the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act as a significant priority, even as they concede that the incoming governor will have more pressing issues to address. “I have mentioned to her people that this is something we need to move on sooner than later,” said Sen. Liz Krueger, a champion of the legalization bill. “They say ‘yes.’ But she’s trying to take over a government in a total of 14 days, which has endless crises going on. I don’t know where this lines up on her list. … I hope she will have two seconds to focus on cannabis.”
MA Tracker
Massachusetts sales remain healthy as they continue to ramp. The week of August 6th had sales of $29 Million, a 61% jump YoY. Their YoY increases have been decelerating as expected as the market matures. Based on the past 12 weeks of sales, the annual run rate of sales for MA is $1.413 Billion.
