Over 188.7 million people over the age of 18 in the U.S. live in a state or territory where cannabis has been legalized, either medically or for adult-use, according to a Grown In analysis. That means that over 73% of the U.S. adult population has some type of access to legal cannabis.
California and Illinois have the highest number of adults over the age of 18 that have access to both medical and adult-use markets. New York, rivaling Illinois, is coming online in the next few months.
Of the states with medical-only markets, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have the highest number of people over the age of 18.
Of the states that responded to media inquiries for latest medical patient numbers or had those numbers posted online, the average enrollment in medical-only states is 1.84%, with Oklahoma rising to the top, with over 12% of its population enrolled in the medical program. The medical-only state with the lowest patient enrollment is West Virginia with 0.37% of the population over 18 enrolled.
For states that have both medical and adult-use markets, the average medical patient enrollment is 2.16%. The state with the highest percentage of its adult population enrolled as a medical patient is New Mexico, with 7.97%. The lowest is Alaska, with just 0.07% of the adult population enrolled.
This part of the data, however, is limited, as seven states with a medical program did not respond to media inquiries about their patient enrollment numbers by the time of this publication nor did they publish the numbers on their websites. Two states – California and Louisiana – don’t keep track of these numbers. Also, Virginia’s and South Dakota’s medical patient numbers are not public records.
