Now that Q1 has wrapped up we want to share our quarterly round-up of which states issued the most dispensary/retailer licenses. We tallied 333 new dispensary/retailer licenses were issued in the quarter and New Jersey and Michigan each accounted for about 20% of the 333. In Q1 2023 there were 699 licenses issued.

Key Findings

• 333 new store licenses were issued in the quarter compared to 699 last year
• 4 states accounted for 60% of these licenses: New Jersey, Michigan, New Mexico, and New York
• Oklahoma accounted for 1.2% of the new licenses down from 47% last year

‍

Last year states issued almost as many store licenses in January as they did in the whole quarter this year. The Q1 2023 total was 699 versus 333 in Q1 2024. The complete list of issuing states is available on our Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform www.cannabiz.media.

Leaderboard

In looking across the 333 new licenses, it is illuminating to see which companies added licenses. Based on the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform, here are the 10 companies that added 4 or more licenses in Q1 2024. Six of these companies have a New Mexico footprint – so these are likely chain expansions:

Finally, the table below shows the top 5 states that issued new dispensary/retail licenses in Q1 2024:

The complete list is available on our Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform www.cannabiz.media.

‍

Conclusion

Although 333 licenses were added, the net new number of stores in the quarter was only 97, and it is primarily driven by Oklahoma shedding licenses. Licensed cannabis dispensaries and retailers are under tremendous pressure.  In some states, there is market saturation and in most the legacy market takes share. A third factor is the availability of substitutes derived from hemp. In states like Texas and Florida, the CBD store licenses vastly outnumber the legal licensed stores. Some regulators have figured out that there is a cannabinoid economy, and they are figuring out how to regulate it. In states like Connecticut, we are seeing ripple effects in alcohol distribution as the state figures out where these products can be sold and by whom. Stay tuned for more quarterly updates as new programs like Ohio’s start soon!

‍

Author

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has managed product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental, and human resource markets.  

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabiz Media Market Intelligence Platform yourself to dive further into this data.

‍Cannacurio is a column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive license data platform. Catch up on Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and intel.