Cannacurio # 44: Growing license ranking January – May 2021

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While we’ve all watched MSOs buy out each other over the past few months, regulators have continued their efforts to license and enforce their rules and regulations. In this post, I want to focus on where the new cultivation licenses were issued, what that means for the total number of licenses, and what it could mean in terms of the expanded canopy size.

By the end of May, 3,278 new cultivation licenses had been granted in 14 states. As we’ve seen over the past few years, California and Oklahoma have been driving these license numbers, with California accounting for 37% and Oklahoma for 50%. Michigan finished third with 5.6% and Oregon finished fourth with 3.7%.

Most important findings

• 4 states accounted for 95% of the new licenses.
• Oklahoma led with 1,621 copies, while California was second with 1,205; and Michigan finished third with 183.
• California licensed 282 acres of new acreage this year!

How Much Canopy Has Been Licensed in California?

Not all states include information about screen size in their licenses. Some give out broad levels, some give no information, and still others give out their growing licenses based on the number of plants. Below, we conducted an analysis of cultivation licenses issued in California to determine how much canopy has been licensed by regulators.

Remember that licensed doesn’t necessarily mean operational, but it is a proxy for the canopy to grow. We also used the upper limit of the license area.

This is how the 282 hectares are stacked according to license type:

Given the existing data gaps, figuring out the crop size at the national level is probably more art than science. Oklahoma currently has 7,754 licenses according to the Cannabiz Media License Database – but there is no limit to how much cannabis a cultivator can grow in Oklahoma. I’d love to hear estimates of how tall the canopy of Oklahoma is.

Cannabiz Media customers can keep up to date on these and other new licenses through our newsletter, warning and reporting modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports in your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how you can access the Cannabiz media license database yourself to examine this data in more detail.

author

Ed Keating is the co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies on compliance issues. Ed has led product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, security, environmental, and human resource markets.

At Cannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators around the world as he and his team collect corporate, financial, and licensing information to keep track of the people, products, and companies in the cannabis industry.

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School.

Cannacurio is a weekly column from Cannabiz Media with insights from the most comprehensive license data platform. Check out Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and information.