We are midway through 2020 and the industry has added 667 licenses this year. Those new licenses represent a 9.6% increase from the 6,927 at the beginning of the year. Twenty-one states have added at least one active license this year. Oklahoma still retails the lead and has accounted for 249 of the 667 (37%).

Other states are continuing to issue licenses or are engaged in fights with existing license holders or those that were denied licenses.

• Rhode Island announced this week that the state Department of Business Regulation will begin accepting applications Friday from businesses hoping to win a license to operate one of six additional medical marijuana dispensaries. This is big news as there are only 3 dispensaries in the state now. To apply, applicants will have to submit a $10,000 fee along with a host of detailed financial information. Winners of the licenses will each have to pay an annual $500,000 licensing fee, considered one of the — if not the — most expensive in the country according to the Providence Journal. By contrast, an Oklahoma cannabis license is $2,500.
• In Oklahoma a class action lawsuit has been filed against OMMA – the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority with respect to residency requirements. According to the lawsuit, more than 250 businesses are impacted by the residency requirement changes and school distance changes.
• Missouri, which had a very organized rollout of licenses is now being besieged by lawsuits alleging scorning improprieties from those who were rejected.
• Florida’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a second round of arguments in a battle about whether the state has properly carried out a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana.

Key Findings

• A Rhode Island license carries an annual fee of $500,000 versus $2,500 in Oklahoma!
• Oregon, Colorado and Washington together only added 57 on a YTD basis
• Oklahoma leads the nation again with 249 new licenses
• Michigan came in second with 142 new licenses – up 68% since January 1

Oklahoma continues to be the hotspot for dispensaries in the United States and accounts for for almost 25% of the nation’s dispensaries/retailers. The rate of issuance has continued to decline since Q319.

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