Maine’s regulated adult-use hashish trade generated greater than $200 million in gross sales final yr, a rise of 36% over 2022, in keeping with info from the state Workplace of Hashish Coverage. However hashish enterprise house owners who really feel that Maine’s hashish market is turning into oversaturated say that the numbers obscure the challenges licensed operators will face within the not-too-distant future.
Maine’s licensed leisure marijuana retailers rang up 3.7 million transactions in 2022, raking in about $217 million within the course of, in keeping with info launched by state regulators on Monday. The yearly whole represents a 36% improve over the $159 million in gross sales recorded in 2022.
John Hudak, director of the Workplace of Hashish Coverage, stated the 2023 numbers don’t inform the entire story in regards to the well being of Maine’s hashish trade.
“The gross sales numbers are up nearly 40%. That’s a robust testomony to how the trade continues to develop,” Hudak told the Portland Press Herald. “However hidden in these numbers, too, is a reasonably vital lower in value.”
Hashish costs decreased by about 16% total in 2023, Hudak stated, a drop that signifies that Maine’s hashish growers are producing an excessive amount of weed. Whereas customers recognize the decrease costs, the drop in income might be unhealthy information for producers and retailers.
“Even with the will increase in total gross sales, the decreased costs do make it more durable to function,” Hudak stated. “Ultimately we’re going to see enterprise closures.”
The Maine legislature legalized leisure marijuana gross sales in 2018, with licensed gross sales of adult-use hashish starting in October 2020. Earlier laws that legalized private possession and residential cultivation of hashish went into impact in 2017.
Costs Dropped Extra Than 50%
The early days of regulated leisure marijuana gross sales in Maine noticed restricted provide, leading to excessive costs for customers on the state’s retailers. However as extra licensed operators ramp up their companies, oversupply has develop into a big concern for Maine’s authorized hashish trade.
The common value of a gram of smokable hashish flower was $16.68 when leisure marijuana gross sales started three years in the past. In December of final yr, the worth had dropped to $7.53 per gram.
Mark Benjamin, proprietor of the Botany hashish dispensary in Rockland, stated foot visitors has climbed steadily since he opened the store in late 2021. However with falling costs coinciding with a rise in licensed retailers, he and his workers have created new incentives to encourage clients to spend extra.
“There could also be tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} flowing into (the market), however it’s actually unfold out throughout extra shops,” stated Benjamin.
Along with his enterprise thriving, Benjamin is about to open a brand new Botany store in Belfast, Maine within the subsequent few days. However he acknowledges that some enterprise house owners have had a tougher time succeeding, significantly those that should not have prepared entry to capital.
“Everybody was dropping and dropping their costs with a purpose to get sufficient money within the door to cowl their prices,” he stated. “The weaker gamers are beginning to drop out of the market,” he stated.
Hayden Stokes and Zach Dolgos are the house owners of The Joyful Canary, a hashish cultivator that has been supplying Maine’s medical hashish trade for the final six years. In December, they opened their Blue Lobster dispensary in Casco, Maine, the city’s first leisure marijuana retailer. Stokes stated they hope to achieve the license wanted to develop for the adult-use market quickly, seeing vertical integration as the important thing to the corporate’s success.
“Having our personal retail is an enormous a part of the answer,” he stated. “When you have got your personal retail, you possibly can set your personal destiny.”
Hudak stated that he believes that Maine’s hashish trade will see a couple of extra years of gross sales progress earlier than the yearly whole begins to plateau. David Vickers, proprietor of Origins Hashish Firm in Augusta and Manchester, stated that he believes a lot of the trade’s progress will come from southern coastal cities.
“You’re going to proceed to see folks flocking to Maine,” he stated. “I don’t suppose we’ve hit the summit but, however I feel we’re actually getting there. There are solely so many individuals in Maine.”
Vickers, Stokes and Benjamin all function companies that serve or will quickly serve each the leisure and medical hashish markets. They imagine many medical marijuana companies will quickly both change to leisure marijuana or finish operations fully.
In April, the Workplace of Hashish Coverage launched a report warning a couple of “mass exodus” of the trade’s medical caregivers. In 2016, the variety of caregivers hit a peak of about 3,250. By December 2023, the quantity had fallen to 1,763.
“I’m seeing the medical facet struggling because the leisure facet will increase,” Vickers stated. “That to me, long run, might not be an excellent factor for Maine. We’ve got so many small farmers which will very probably lose their livelihood.”