States in the Midwest baked up lukewarm cannabis sales this February. While most states combined sales decreased, Michigan’s adult use cannabis sales strengthened the state’s numbers, making it the only state in the region with a clear upward trend since the start of the year. A large portion of total dollar sales decreases in that state could be attributed to a sharp decline in retail prices, say regulators.
In Michigan, medical sales were trending down while adult use sales went up. The combined total sales for February 2022 is $154,840,721, a 1.5% increase from January, with adult sales driving that number up.
The retail price of flower in the state dropped 53% in both the medical and adult use markets since March of last year, Marijuana Regulatory Agency director Andrew Brisbo said last week. He also said monthly sales by dollar amount totals are down 32% in the medical market but up 85% in the adult use market.
Jason Crockett, CEO of legal cannabis wholesaler THCBD Source in Clarkston, Mich., says the drop in cannabis prices is due in part because of supply and demand issues.
“You’re also dealing with a slightly saturated market,” he said. “In a competitive market, like a city, like Detroit, if you have a group that can produce product cheaper and then they sell it cheaper, well, it’s really hard to compete. It’s not necessarily anything more than just that.”
Another reason is the season.
“Due to the time of year it is, every winter prices and sales just go down because people aren’t out and about,” Crockett said. “You’ll see the prices go back up in the summer, you’ll start to see sales go back up. In the summer, they will get to a point that’s higher than it is right now. Not a lot higher. Then you’re going to start to see it stabilize over the next two, three years.”
John Zamojcin, head of business development and acquisitions at THCBD Source, said growers are struggling.
“As more and more dispensaries are coming on line, that’ll make a huge difference in Michigan for a lot of people out there,” Zamojcin said. “A lot of these growers, they’re struggling. They’ve got to make a certain amount of profit on their pounds. Some are growing it at $300. Some are growing it at $700 a pound. So that’s another factor in the industry.”
There were 231,916 patients in February compared to 244,389 in October, a 5% decrease over four months. Also, 29 medical marijuana licenses received pre-approval from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency in February.
Crockett said it’s likely that medical cannabis sales will continue trending downward, there are still some things patients can only get through the medical market.
“You can do more things with them like you can make a higher dose edible. The real, true medical patient really needs these higher doses and you can’t get that on the recreational market,” Crockett said. “If adult use starts to adopt those practices, then you won’t even need medical at all.”
Medical sales in Illinois were down by 5% in February compared to January, and adult use sales were down by over 2%. Combined cannabis sales for February was $142,180,111, a 3% decrease since January. Total medical retail sales since November 2015 passed $1,343,000,000.
From November 2021 to March 2022, the number of registered patients was down by 23%. In February, medical dispensaries served over 64,000 individual patients who purchased a total of 1,067,745 grams of dry cannabis, according to the Illinois Medical Cannabis Patient Program.
Ohio’s medical sales were also down, though it’s important to note this state does not have adult use sales to bolster its numbers. In February, the state saw $35,613,293 in medical cannabis sales, an 11.7% decrease from January.
The number of patients with both active registrations and recommendations was 129,740 in January 2022, down by 1% since October 2021. There were 636 certified physicians who could approve a medical patient in February 2022.
Missouri had about $26,660,000 in medical sales in February, an increase of just 0.26%. Its trend line has stayed mostly flat since December 2021.
As of March 7, there were 186 medical dispensaries in Missouri, along with 46 cultivation facilities and 66 manufacturing sites.
