Market share trends in Florida (TCNNF, CURLF)
The Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) releases updated cannabis data every Friday.
For the week ending August 28th, the number of qualified patients in Florida’s medical marijuana program grew 1.4% WoW or 35% YTD and finally passed the 400K milestone with 404,780 qualified patients with active ID cards.
In a long-anticipated development, effective last Thursday, edible sales were approved for both production and sales in the Sunshine State. The four operators with authorized kitchens to produce edibles are Trulieve, Curaleaf, Parallel Florida, and VidaCann. Trulieve and Curaleaf were approved for new dispensing locations this past week, bring their totals to 57 and 33 dispensing locations, respectively. THC in mgs sold grew 6.2% WoW to 126.4 million mgs, CBD in mgs sold grew 10.7% WoW to 4.1 million mgs, and flower in oz. sold fell -8.3% WoW to 42,292 oz. sold.
Trulieve (TCNNF) is the dominant player in Florida’s medical marijuana market. On a 4WMA basis, the company’s market share of mgs THC sold slightly dipped WoW to 49.0%. Trulieve held 33.7% share of mgs CBD sold and 50.4% of flower in oz. sold with just 20.7% of market share in units. In the charts below, Florida’s market share can be visualized on a THC in mgs sold/flower in oz. sold per dispensing location, on a 12WMA basis. In terms of THC, Trulieve vastly outpaces its competitors on the average amount sold across its operating locations – AltMed Florida and Curaleaf (CURLF) lag behind Trulieve by more than 600,000 mgs of THC sold. In the smokable flower market, Trulieve continues to widen its lead relative to its closest competitors, like Surterra Wellness, AltMed Florida, Curaleaf, and GrowHealthy.
Florida’s medical marijuana marketplace is still in early stages with strong potential – the state’s medical marijuana program has yet to reach 2% of the population, smokable flower was just introduced to the market last year, and there’s a broad range of qualifying medical conditions, notably ‘severe and chronic pain’. The rising tide that is patient volume growth lifts all ships.
House to vote on federal decriminalization in September – likely DOA in Republican-controlled Senate
Last Friday, congressional leadership confirmed that the House will vote on federal decriminalization, while deferring regulation to the states. In a historic first, the vote will be the first time that either the House or the Senate ever voted on marijuana decriminalization.
House Majority Whip James Clayburn (D-SC) emailed lawmakers that the chamber is expected to take up the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act in September; Democratic VP pick Kamala Harris is the bill’s lead sponsor. The MORE Act would federally deschedule marijuana by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, establish a process to expunge past marijuana-related convictions, and levy a 5% sales tax designated for a trust fund to support communities impacted by the war on drugs.
While exciting for the cannabis industry, even if the bill passes through the Democratic-controlled House, it seems likely to be DOA in the Republican-controlled Senate, especially before the November election.
Nebraska Secretary of State rejects legal challenge to medical marijuana initiative, but faces another court challenge
In a series of rapid legislative developments characteristic to the cannabis industry, shortly after the time of writing of our Friday note, Nebraska’s Secretary of State Bob Evnen rejected a legal challenge against the medical marijuana initiative. However, Lancaster Country Sheriff Terry Wagner, the now-named backer of the initial lawsuit, has again filed a new lawsuit to prevent the medical marijuana initiative from reaching the November ballot. The state’s Supreme Court will hear arguments this coming Thursday – a decision will need to be made by September 11th, the deadline by which Evnen is required to finalize the state ballot. Nebraska’s medical marijuana measure would guarantee a constitutional right to use and grow marijuana if physician recommended, without restriction on what medical conditions qualify.
