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Gross sales of medical marijuana in Missouri are rising sharply this summer season. Final month, the trade generated almost $16.5 million, up from $15.5 million the month earlier than.
In lower than a yr in operation, dispensaries and different hashish firms have raked in additional than $70 million, according to recent data collected by the Missouri Division of Well being and Senior Providers, which oversees the brand new trade.
Lyndall Fraker, who heads the state hashish program, says these numbers are good however anticipated.
“We’ve put so many dispensaries on-line, and we’ve broadened the affected person base by including extra amenities, so that you’re mechanically going to have new sufferers which might be going to be in areas the place there wasn’t a dispensary that have been form of ready,” he mentioned. “I believe that’s the most important motive.”
He mentioned cumulative sales are on track with his goals to hit the $100 million milestone by the tip of the summer season and $200 million by the tip of the yr.
There at the moment are about 125 medical hashish dispensaries open throughout the state. Fraker anticipates that as much as 80 extra will open by the tip of August earlier than issues decelerate.
The variety of sufferers consuming hashish is rising too. Now, greater than 125,000 Missourians have a medical marijuana card.
That features about 3,700 individuals who work within the trade. Andrew Mullins, government director of the Missouri Medical Hashish Commerce Affiliation, mentioned in a press release that he expects the variety of jobs to double over the course of the trade’s first full yr in operation.
“This stays a summer season of lofty expectations, with 1000’s of recent sufferers every week acquiring their hashish playing cards, enterprise homeowners creating a gradual move of recent jobs and our trade producing tens of millions in new tax income for the state due to an extra 4% gross sales tax devoted to the well being and care of veterans,” Mullins mentioned.
Many dispensaries opened around the industry’s unofficial holiday on April 20, referred to as 4/20.
That features Root 66 in St. Peters. District Supervisor Rachel Shenk mentioned the shop in St. Charles County is already seeing better demand than the model’s different two places in St. Louis, with plenty of sufferers coming from cities even farther west, resembling O’Fallon and Wentzville.
“The shopper base in that space has been in search of one thing nearer. There haven’t been a whole lot of dispensaries open,” she mentioned.
Shenk beforehand labored at dispensaries in Colorado when the hashish trade there expanded from medical to leisure use in 2014. She mentioned the expansion in new clients and gross sales in Missouri’s market is rising as anticipated at this stage.
However she mentioned the problem for dispensaries in Missouri is conserving sufficient stock readily available with just a few cultivators presently rising hashish. The state handed out about 60 licenses for cultivators, however solely 23 have opened thus far.
“There’s a whole lot of dispensaries open proper now so everyone seems to be vying for a similar merchandise from the identical few distributors which might be on the market,” Shenk mentioned.
She’s hoping to see extra distributors open up over the following six months.
Observe Corinne on Twitter: @corinnesusan
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