Michigan’s flower prices are down while overall unit sales are up in a big way. While medical and adult use flower prices dropped 24 percent and 44 percent respectively, in the last 12 months, overall monthly flower sales are up 49 percent in the medical market and 223 percent in the adult use market since January 2021, according a report made last Wednesday by Michigan’s top cannabis regulator, Andrew Brisbo, executive director of the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency.
“There’s more flower in the market. The decrease in price makes all the sense in the world to me,” said Chris Jackson, operator of dispensary Sticky Yipsi. “With medical, most medical patients, even though they save 10%, I don’t think they want to go through the trouble of going to a doctor to get a card. They are paying for the convenience, versus getting the card.”
Of course, croptober is a big impact for lower prices at the moment, says cultivator and co-owner of Redbud Roots, Dave Murray.
“The drop in price is mainly due to the addition of new cultivators coming online and the anticipation of the fall harvest for all the outdoor farms,” Murray said. “We also continue to see stronger border sales, like. shops that are right across neighboring states like Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin [from the] upper peninsula.”
But, just because Brisbo is trumpeting low prices now, don’t expect that to last, says Jason cannabis wholesaler Jason Crockett of THCBD.
“We’re at kind of a saturation point, I’m seeing a lot of inventory. [People asking] “Can you help me sell this?” It’s crazy. You’re going to see it flip flop and then it’ll pick up in the spring. It’ll ebb and flow every year going forward.”
Brisbo also announced that according to his agency’s accounting, 54 percent and 57 percent of medical and adult use sales are going to flower, respectively. And 34 percent and 38 percent are going to vapes and concentrates. Those numbers closely track an August report from Headset data, which showed overall Michigan market sales 54 percent going to flower and 7.4% going to concentrates during 2021.
But those overall numbers don’t reflect major seasonal trends, says THCBD’s Crockett.
“Concentrates go up in the winter and flower sales go down, because not everyone smokes in the house,” said Crockett. “Here we’re still a flower-buying state. But Michigan is different. People just don’t smoke as much flower in the winter.”
