Cannacurio # 48: Best list for pharmacies and retailers September 2021

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Pharmacies and retailers went online again this year. We have 1,846 licenses issued by the end of August. Six states have issued 100 or more licenses to date, with Oklahoma taking the lead as usual.

Most important findings

• Oklahoma continues its dominant position with 462 (25%) new licenses.
• We’re now showing Montana as a leader as their janitor / supplier licenses can now be classified as pharmacies.
• Other leading states are Michigan with 208, Arizona with 125, and Missouri with 120.

The questions the market keeps asking concern licenses that are not yet available: What about Illinois? Where are the licenses for New Jersey and New Mexico? And Georgia!

What we’ve all seen since we started tracking licenses is that there is often a significant time lag from when the law is passed to when the licenses are issued and then until they actually take effect. While Oklahoma began issuing licenses in six months, many other jurisdictions have 18-24 months.

In the meantime, here is our count of active cannabis pharmacy / retail licenses. We currently estimate 8,212 stores own these 9,032 licenses as some stores have medical and adult licenses.

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The year is still early and we still believe 2021 promises another year of license growth in some markets. Arizona unleashed 102 new retail licenses to existing pharmacy licensees, while West Virginia released its list of 100 approved pharmacies. Georgia and Rhode Island are about to issue licenses, and Illinois has long been announcing their next licensing round. We will keep you updated in future Cannacurios.

In our last update on pharmacies and retailers in March, we looked at new licenses from Rhode Island, Georgia, and Illinois. So far, Rhode Island has been busted, Illinois decided who should get some of them but can’t display them, and Georgia got their award. All eyes are still on New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Connecticut, so stay tuned!

Cannabiz Media customers can keep up to date with 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.

Cannacurio is a weekly column from Cannabiz Media with insights from the most comprehensive license data platform.