Legal cannabis sales in the Midwest underwhelmed in January, as Michigan and Illinois trended downward from December 2021. Meanwhile Ohio’s retail medical sales continued to slowly increase and Missouri’s medical sales dipped a little below the previous months’ numbers.
Illinois
Illinois’ legal cannabis continued to plateau in January at $146.9 million – 16% below their all time high of $173 million in December 2021, but close to their fall sales numbers. The state reported $35.26 million in sales made to out-of-state residents in adult use cannabis sales, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. On the medical side, there were $29.69 million in cannabis sales in January; $14 million in flower sales and $15.6 million in concentrates and infused products, according to the Medical Cannabis Patient Program.
Dispensaries in the state served over 65,000 unique medical patients, who purchased a total of 1.13 million grams of dry cannabis. As of February 7, there were 134,834 active patients in the medical program.
Also in January, legislators filed a bill to limit cannabis products’ THC potency after the Illinois Poison Center received a record number of calls in 2021, according to reports. In 2020, there were 743 reported cases; in 2021 there were 855 – a 15% increase.
Michigan
Michigan cannabis sales were $152.6 million for the first month of the year. That’s 15% below its December 2021 sales.
Michigan reports unusually detailed sales data, so in January we know adult-use retail stores sold over 24,883 pounds of legal cannabis flower and medical provisioning centers sold another 6,713 pounds, according to the Marijuana Regulatory Agency.
Medical deliveries made $1.4 million in sales, according to the state. The average medical retail flower price was $119 per ounce. On the adult use side, deliveries made $5.12 million in sales and the average retail flower price was $152 per ounce.
The Marijuana Regulatory Agency issued 22 formal complaints to medical operators in January, including 11 to provisioning centers; nine to Class C growers; and two to Class A growers, according to the state. There were 67 investigations opened and 53 enforcement actions, for both the adult use and medical programs.
On the adult use side, there were 24 formal complaints issued to retailers; seven to Class C growers; five to processors; four to transporters; three to safety compliance facilities; and two to Class B growers, according to the state.
Municipalities in Michigan sought to place restrictions on caregivers in January, according to Grown In reports. Local governments are moving to implement zoning restrictions and require homegrown operations to be available for surprise inspections by police and fire departments. Caregivers claim this is meant to strangulate their operations, which are competing with established and licensed marijuana businesses.
Michigan had 27,799 registered caregivers serving 238,788 patients as of January 2022.
In January, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency released a three-year plan which included pursuing legislative solutions for consolidating medical and adult-use programs “to ensure state policy is aligned with the shifting cannabis market while maintaining access for medical patients and streamlining the regulatory environment for businesses.”
Ohio
Sales in Ohio in January were over $40.3 million which is a 23% increase from its December 2021 numbers, according to state data.
In January, there were 991.12 pounds of plant material sold, according to the state.
As of January, Ohio had 22 Level I provisional cultivator licenses; 16 of which received certificates of operation. There were 14 Level II provisional cultivator licenses, 12 of which received certificates of operations. There were 58 dispensaries with provisional licenses. 57 of which received certificates of operation, according to the state. Of the ten testing sites that received provisional licenses, three have received certificates of operation.
Ohio is set to award 73 new medical dispensary licenses in the coming weeks, which had applications due on November 18. New licenses are expected to be awarded in Spring 2022, although regulators have not announced an official due date.
While there were 237,613 registered patients as of December 31, 2021, the latest data available regulators reporting only 215,410 unique medical patients actually purchased cannabis during that period.
Last month, Ohio legislators began to contemplate three bills to legalize adult-use, including one that was introduced by petition, but the state’s Senate majority leader put the kabosh on all of them when he announced he would not call any for a vote.
Missouri
December 2021 sales in the state almost met Ohio’s sales, earning $28.9 million and ending the year with over $209.75 million in sales. But in January, the sales numbers were down 8% from December 2021. However, Missouri has 183 operating dispensaries, while Ohio only has 57 dispensaries as of January.
In Missouri, the state received 731 applications for patient cultivators and 103 caregiver cultivator applications in January, according to the state. The state also received 10,581 medical patient applications.
Over 2.5% of Missouri’s population is a registered medical marijuana patient – the highest of all the Midwest states, according to Grown In reports. The average Missouri patient spent over $1,300 in 2021, according to a Grown In analysis. That’s over $110 per month.
