As legislators on Rhode Island are thinking about legalizing recreational cannabis, the data on medical cannabis sales shows that the volume of products sold is setting state records year by year.
Currently, the state has three licensed dispensaries selling medical cannabis products. These dispensaries are on course to sell medical cannabis products worth about $56 million during the 2019 fiscal year.
If that target is hit, it will mark a 46.6 percent increase from the total sales of the previous fiscal year (2018). Medical cannabis sales for 2018 were also approximately 33.3 percent higher than what was registered in 2017.
As you can see, the medical cannabis industry on Rhode Island seems to be growing at an unstoppable pace year by year.
Rhode Island has a fairly short list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions when compared to other states where similar programs exist. However, the definition of those conditions is broad and it allows anyone with the symptoms of the listed conditions to access medical cannabis.
The state has about 18, 200 patients who are active on the medical marijuana program. Active patients are those who regularly buy medical cannabis products from the licensed dispensaries.
The uptick in medical cannabis sales has given the state a much-needed boost to its revenue. For example, the state earned $2.75 million as taxes on various aspects of the medical cannabis industry.
In this fiscal year, the state expects to earn almost double what it earned during the last fiscal year. Projections indicate that the state will collect about $5.4 million in taxes from the medical cannabis industry.
In the meantime, there are proposals to legalize recreational cannabis and also expand the medical cannabis sector. One of the proposals seeks to increase the number of dispensaries to nine.
Previous attempts to increase the number of dispensaries have been successfully resisted by the existing three dispensaries who argued that bringing in more players would hurt their businesses and result in possible closures.
However, those who want more dispensaries to be licensed argue that patients aren’t having sufficient access to dispensaries since the existing ones aren’t equally spread out across the state. Additionally, the lack of robust competition in the medical cannabis sector has denied patients competitive prices and access to a broader variety of products.
Advocates are therefore asking regulators to give priority to dispensaries that wish to operate in areas where none currently exists, and new operators should be brought on board before the existing ones are allowed to open additional compassion centers (medical cannabis dispensaries).
These reforms seem reasonable enough, and the regulators would be well advised to act upon the suggestions made. Cannabis Strategic Ventures, Inc. (OTC: NUGS) and Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX.V: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF) hope that the state will act on the proposed reforms so that patients can have easier access a wider variety of products at competitive prices.
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