The Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Utilization (OMMU), part of the Florida Department of Health, provides information on the state's medical cannabis, including active patient numbers, qualified physician numbers, new dispensary approvals, and updates on the Florida Medical Cannabis Program. Data about the program is published weekly. each operator. That data includes the number of pharmacies and the number of units sold each week. This is probably the 7th New Cannabis Ventures article updated monthly. In May, it also published a newsletter about the state, suggesting readers keep an eye on Florida. This article is based on the latest information provided by the state this week. Readers interested in future data should visit the OMMU updates page.
Growth in patient numbers is slowing
Our last update on the Florida market was a month ago, with annual patient growth declining from 8.4% in late May to 4.8% in early September. This rate has fallen to an all-time low, sitting at 3.9% last week.
The number of patients is still increasing, but the rate of increase is very low. The 886,000 patients represent 4% of the state's population. In fact, the number of cases has decreased recently.
A post-pandemic population boom has helped increase cases, and improvements to some programs have helped excite Floridians. The number of dispensing pharmacies increased from 591 a year ago to 683. This is a 15.6% increase, much faster than the previous increase in medical cannabis patients.
Unit growth remains strong
It recently shared that Florida's revenue increased just 1.4% year-over-year as of April, according to company estimates. This was a record low. BDSA released September data showing Florida's growth accelerated slightly again, increasing 5.2% year over year. This is still quite slow, especially considering patient growth and pharmacy growth.
Increasing competition, falling prices and a slight increase in sales suggest that unit sales growth remains strong. In the past week, sales of medical cannabis products containing THC were down 1.1% year over year. This is a big change since a month ago it was up 12.6% year over year. Smoky flower units increased 10.7% from the week ended 10/04/23.
conclusion
We warned our readers on May 17th about a large MSO in Florida because investors appeared to be overly optimistic. Since then, the overall cannabis market has retreated, and MSO Group's overall stock price has fallen significantly. Three of Florida's four leaders significantly declined.
The overall market, as measured by the NCV Global Cannabis Stock Index, has fallen 20.6% since then, while the NCV American Cannabis Operators Index has fallen 27.6%. Three of the Florida four made more stops than both of these. One company we think could do very well if Florida legalizes it for adult use is Planet 13 (OTC: PLNH) (CSE: PLTH). The company recently reported its first quarter in August, which included VidaCann's second quarter results. Since our mid-May article, its decline has been lower than all of these, down 2.5%, outpacing the entire cannabis sector.
It's unclear whether Florida voters will approve adult-use legalization in November. Otherwise, the market is likely to be dissatisfied with the mature medical market, where growth is slowing and competition is increasing. If that happens, it is not yet clear whether the big four will prevail in the future. Our view of Florida's large operator is that investors should remain cautious.
Based in Houston, Alan leverages his experience as the founder of 420 Investor, an online community that was the first and remains the largest due diligence platform focused on publicly traded stocks in the cannabis industry. With his extensive network in the cannabis community, Alan continues to explore new ways to connect the industry and foster its sustainable growth. New Cannabis Ventures is responsible for content development and strategic partnerships. Alan began his career on Wall Street in 1986 and worked as an independent research analyst after more than 20 years in research and portfolio management before shifting his focus to the cannabis industry in early 2013. A prolific writer who has published more than 650 articles on Seeking Alpha since 2007 and has 70,000 followers, Alan frequently speaks at industry conferences and has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, and Bloomberg. tv set. Contact Alan: Twitter |Facebook |LinkedIn |Email
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In this article:
Air Wellness, AYRWF, Cannabist, Cansortium, cbst, cbstf, cl, CNTMF, Cresco Labs, CRLBF, cura, Curaleaf, curlf, Florida, Green Thumb Industries, gtbif, Gti, gtii, Planet 13, plnh, PLTH, tcnnf , TRUL, Trulieve, Verano Holdings, VRNO, vrnof
