Florida Cannabis Trends.
Florida cannabis sales for October came in at ~$152M, up 10% sequentially and 9.3% YoY. Unit volumes sold in the state were up 7.5% MoM and up 20.3% YoY. Wow, growing unit volumes by 20% from a year ago is the type of indicator showing a lot of upside to the cannabis industry once we get past this pricing pressure headwind. On Pricing, the average item price was down 9.1% YoY, but it was up sequentially 1.6%. It is too early to call the bottom in price in this market, but these numbers give hope.
American Thoughts On Cannabis.
In a survey conducted by Gallup, Americans' support for legalizing cannabis across the U.S. is at record levels, with 68% of Americans in support of this cause. This compares to 60% of support back in 2016. Back when they first conducted this survey in 1969, only 12% of Americans were in favor. This rose to nearly 30% in the late 1970s before dipping back down and not showing increased support until the 2000s. Some outliers in the data include "subgroups whose support for legalization exceeds the national average by ten or more percentage points include those with no religious preference (89%), self-identified liberals (84%), Democrats (81%), young adults (79%) and those who seldom or never attend religious services (78%). Groups whose support is at least 10 points below the national average include those who attend church weekly (46%), conservatives (49%), Republicans (51%), older adults (53%), and Hispanic adults (56%)." news.gallup.com
Cannabis research Bill.
Yesterday, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill that the House of Representatives previously passed on the topic of cannabis research. Amazingly, it is the first standalone bill ever sent to the president's desk regarding cannabis reform. The bill "would eliminate the red tape that hinders cannabis research, opening the door for new innovative treatments derived from cannabis," Schumer said ahead of the vote. "If you're one of the millions of Americans who deal with conditions like Parkinson's or epilepsy or post-traumatic stress or any other conditions, cannabis might hold promising new options for managing these diseases." Senator Schumer also mentioned that he had had productive talks about a broader cannabis reform bill, SAFE, which he hopes to pass during the lame-duck session. Only time will tell if that comes to fruition, and there isn't a ton of time to get that done.
