Cannabiz Media Blog

With Q2 2023 in the books we want to share our quarterly round-up of states that issued dispensary/retailer licenses. We ended 2022 with 2,750 licenses, with Q1 2023 adding 699. Q2 saw the addition of 587 – 16% fewer than the preceding quarter.

Florida was one of the earlier states to legalize medical cannabis, doing so in 2016 through a constitutional amendment. The state’s cannabis market is unique in a variety of ways - being dominated by one company, including an unusual type of social equity cannabis license, and for not yet having expanded to adult-use even after seven years of medical legalization. The decision by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to run for US president has only increased national interest in understanding the state of the Florida cannabis market.

The US cannabis unlicensed market is estimated to be about $60 billion in sales – or more than twice the licensed market size of about $30 billion. Starting at the end of 2022, Cannabiz Media’s research team sought to find these unlicensed businesses and add them to the database. As the industry’s database of record, it was a gap that we thought needed filling. 

It can be difficult to figure out what to post, plus navigating on how to stay in Meta’s good graces as a cannabis company, so we put together this roundup of the top 6 post ideas (with industry all-star examples!) to help boost your engagement, build your brand within the cannabis community, provide a personal voice and add variety to your grid.

Cannabiz Media spoke with MCBA President Kaliko Castille to learn how the association uses the Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform to keep a pulse on the industry and identify where to focus their efforts.

We recently researched the cost to purchase a cannabis store in Cannacurio #75 and found that prices varied greatly by year and state – as well as the purchaser’s overall strategy. Soon after we shared that analysis, Terrascend purchased two different dispensaries – one for $22 million and one for $6.75 million. This begged the question as to whether these purchases were exceptional by Maryland standards.

For this Cannacurio analysis we wanted to explore the prices paid for retailers and dispensaries. To do this we researched the 600+ M&A transactions we have compiled in our Cannabiz Business Intelligence offering and removed any stores that were part of a deal where other license types were also sold. That left 170 stores sold in sixteen states. We included both closed and announced deals but ignored those deals that were cancelled.

On this Cannacurio episode, Ed and Kaliko discuss how he became a full time cannabis activist, all things MCBA and the objectives behind the association, a deep dive on social equity programs from regulators, and so much more!

The Cannabis Marketing Summit will be held at the Hilton City Center in Denver, CO from June 21-23, 2023. This year’s event features in-depth workshops and solo sessions covering topics from budgeting to SEO to help marketers personally thrive in their roles while navigating a complex, regulated, and rapidly changing industry.

If your cannabis or cannabis-related business isn’t keeping up with industry data trends, then you’ll fall behind. Today, data-driven businesses have the most success because they have access to the information they need to identify opportunities and avoid taking unnecessary risks. 

Tracking mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in any emerging business ecosystem is always interesting. It allows you to see the madness of early-stage growth markets and the many ups and downs that are experienced before reaching market maturity. The cannabis industry has definitely experienced significant fluctuations in terms of M&A activity, as should be expected in an emerging industry.

The illegal cannabis market continues to thrive – even in states that have legalized adult-use cannabis. As more states work to roll out new cannabis programs this year and others are expected to approve adult-use cannabis, it’s essential to consider what’s happening in the illicit markets within states that have operational adult-use cannabis programs.