Cannacurio #114: Licensing Recap Q2 2025

After Q1 2025, we learned that no briefing schedule had been set to reschedule cannabis. The DEA just used their best cut-and past efforts to issue the exact same update at the conclusion of the second quarter: “No briefing schedule has been set.” As we wrote in April, however, is that regulators continue to issue licenses and renewals across all the state programs.  

Key Findings

• 1,470 new licenses were issued for all activities in Q2 2025, up (27%) from 1,153 in Q1 2025.
• There were 39,047 active cannabis licenses, imperceptibly down from 39,427 from Q1 2025.
• 30 states issued at least one license this quarter.
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Cultivation, Manufacturing and Store licenses accounted for 90% of the cannabis licenses issued. The chart below compares the ratio between the first and second quarters of 2025.

• Cultivation licenses increased from 45% to 56% of the total.
• Stores were down 38% from 27%.
• Manufacturing held steady up 1% to 18%.

*Oklahoma is excluded from these totals because their “new” licenses are just renewals.

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In looking back at the last 12 months, the most volatile category for new licenses has been cultivation, which experienced a spike in April due to 210 new cultivator licenses being issued in Michigan.

Here is the State Leaderboard for Q2 2025 with Michigan in the lead. This table includes all licensed activities:

As stated above, most of Michigan’s new licenses were for cultivation. Same for California with 63% categorized as cultivation.

In looking at the number of facilities in the last twelve months the ratio of licenses to businesses hovers just above 1.2 licenses to each facility. Large California grows skew the average up while stand alone stores, bring it down:

Activities

While there are many types of licenses in the cannabis ecosystem, cultivation, manufacturing and stores make up about 90% of the licenses issued – and they are universally licensed in all jurisdictions. The following section delves into these activities for Q2 2025.

Cultivation

Throughout the year we have seen states reeling from low prices due to oversupply. Despite that 747 more cultivation licenses issued in the quarter and 45% of those came from Michigan.

Cultivation Key Points

• 747 cultivation licenses were issued in Q2 up from 697 in Q1.
• Michigan issued 336 (45%).
• California issued 153 new cultivation licenses with New Mexico trailing at 72.
• There are 18,164 active cultivation licenses nationwide down from 18,218 at the end of Q1.

The graph below shows new cultivation license issuance in 2025. The numbers are pretty consistent except for April when Michigan cranked out 210.

Here is the Q2 2025 Cultivation Leaderboard:  

Manufacturing

As per usual, Manufacturing licenses were the smallest category in terms of new license issuance. In Q2, there were 235 new licenses issued across 16 states. This is up 34% from 175 in Q1.

Manufacturing Key Points

• 235 new manufacturing licenses were issued in Q2 2025, up from 175 in Q1 2025.
• New Mexico led the leaderboard with 91 with New York in second at 68.
• 16 states issued licenses for this activity in Q2 2025, up from 15 in Q1 2025.

Dispensary/Retail

Store openings continue to be newsworthy as many regulators tout the awarding of these new licenses as they are public facing and generate a lot of pro and con sentiment. As we’ve written in this blog before, many of these license holders continue to compete with the legacy market as well as smoke, vape and CBD stores.

Dispensary/Retail Key Points

• 28 states added stores in Q2.
• 361 new store licenses were issued in Q2 down from 381 (-5%) in Q1.
• There are 13,198 active licenses flat from 13,184 at the end of Q1.
• 132 Oklahoma licenses have gone offline since January 1.

In the Store Leaderboard, New York has held onto their leadership position since Q4 2024; and accounted for almost one quarter of all new store licenses nationwide.

Conclusion

At this point in the year, there is still no appreciable movement toward rescheduling. The industry has been tantalized with photos purportedly showing former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz perusing a consulting agreement on a flight as well as many influencers besieging the Trump administration with pleas to reschedule. It seems the White House has other pressing matters right now.

In other news, the Senate just confirmed Terrance Cole as the new head of the Drug Enforcement Agency while DEA Administrative Law Judge Brian Mulrooney, the judge overseeing the resecheduling hearings, announced his retirement.

As far as licensing goes it was another slow and steady quarter with 1,470 new licenses issued, up from Q1.  Industry watchers are still trained up on Minnesota, Kentucky and Delaware. Minnesota has issued a handful, but data is sparse.  We will keep you posted as conditions warrant.

In our next post, we’ll review the retailer/dispensary landscape.

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.  

AtCannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators across the globe as he and his team gather corporate, financial, and license information to track the people, products, and businesses in the cannabis economy.  

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

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Cannacurio is a regular 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. 

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