Cannacurio #59: Dispensary & Retailer Leaderboard June 2022

Periodically, this blog checks in on new license counts throughout the value chain. For this post, we will evaluate what has been happening with dispensaries and retailers. 

According to the Cannabiz Media License Database, states have added 1,066 licenses in the first five months of 2022. Four states have issued 100 or more licenses with Oklahoma in the lead.

Key Findings

• Oklahoma accounted for 331 (31%) of the newly issued licenses.
• New Mexico, a newer leaderboard entrant, was second with 218.
• Michigan grabbed third at 126 while California fell to fourth with 122.
• Colorado, Washington, and Oregon combined for only 66 licenses.

What About Pending Licenses?

Pending licenses are rare. Most states do not share information about them – same goes for applied.  However, there are a few regulators that do make this information available.  

Here are some of the states with licenses in process. Some have been held up because of lawsuits, and others are just working through the process that was set up by a legislature or regulator:

Conclusion

Finally, we like to review the number of existing stores that we are tracking. As has been true for years, Oklahoma leads the nation in number of stores. Even with a license moratorium starting on August 1, I think the Sooner State will stay in the lead for quite some time – unless they run into an extinction event thanks to the expanded compliance requirements and renewal fees. 

Other states will be coming on line with new or expanded programs and we’ll report on those in future updates:

• Alabama aims to accept medical marijuana license applications by fall. [mjbizdaily.com]
• Connecticut regulators received 8,360 equity applications and 7,246 general applications for six licenses. 
• The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation released a Timeline and Next Steps for 185 Conditional Adult Use Dispensary License Awardees. [idfpr.illinois.gov] 
• The new adult-use provisions in Rhode Island allow for up to 33 retail facilities and for existing medical dispensaries to have initial priority for recreational licenses, which may result in sales by the end of this year. [marijuanaandthelaw.com]

Author

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has managed product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multijurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental, and human resource markets.  

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 column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive license data platform. Catch up on Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and intel.