So far this year, 14 states have added a total of 276 new dispensaries/retailers. The largest contributor was not California nor Oklahoma - it was Arizona. Read on for more details.

Key Findings

• 14 states added 276 licenses so far this year.
• Arizona added 110 adult licenses and bestowed them to existing medical license holders.
• Michigan took second place on the leaderboard with 50 new licenses.

The big surprise this year has been the shrinkage of licenses in Oklahoma due to non-renewals. So far this year we have not seen any new licenses issued to replenish the non-renewals. We have long surmised that a shakeout was coming because the population could not support 2,000+ stores.

‍Marijuana Business Daily had a great article recently (citing our data) with insights from a local license holder who pointed out, “You have to fill that store with product, pay rent or mortgage, hire employees. Add the tremendous competition, and it’s a hard business to be in." 

With all that said, Oklahoma still has almost twice the licenses of Colorado:

Conclusion

The year is still early, and we still believe that 2021 promises to be another year of license growth in some markets. Arizona unleashed 102 new retail licenses to existing dispensary license holders while West Virginia published their list of 100 permitted dispensaries. Georgia and Rhode Island are slated to issue licenses soon, and Illinois has teased its next round of licenses for quite some time. We’ll keep you posted in future Cannacurios.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabiz Media License Database yourself to dive further into this data.

Cannacurio is a weekly column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive license data platform.