Whether you were for, or against legalizing marijuana in Florida, the industry looks like it's here to stay. With over 120,000 patients already approved by the state's Office Of Medical Marijuana Use (Previously The Compassionate Use Registry) and 13 dispensaries licensed to sell cannabis products to approved patients statewide, business is booming!
Still, many want to know if medical marijuana is good for Florida's Economy?
The OMMU is collecting a yearly registration fee from each patient of $75.00 which means to date 5/20/2019, Florida has made $7.5 Million, just on licensing. This number is expected to more than quadruple by 2020 and don't forget its a yearly fee.
The dispensaries in Florida are making Millions per month, for example, Trulieve reported hitting 100,000 patients on 4/20/2018, and have run out of cannabis products to sell a few times. The demand for medical marijuana in Florida has produced an industry full of new, decent paying jobs, in dispensaries statewide.
Since late 2016 when legal marijuana first hit the schene it simply spread like wildfire because the population of Florida has a demographic of folks that can greatly benefit from medical marijuana.
Florida has 20.9 Million residents and out of those nearly 23% are retired people over 55 years of age. These people have found that marijuana used under the supervision of a certified specialist (MMJ Doctor) can help treat an array of conditions.
Not surprisingly, retired and eldetrly folks have had a big impact in business, since cannabis, specifically cannabinoid (CBD and THC) are succesful in treating many conditions older people face. Some include inflammation, chronic pain, anxiety and cancer related symtoms.
But medical marijuana benefits are not limited to older Floridian's, infact recent research proves medical marijuana is succesful in treating Opioid drug addiction symtoms like withdrawl. CBD and THC has also shown to restimulate receptors in an addicts brain damaged by opiods and other drug abuse.
To meet this demand over 1,300 physicians have become certified by the state to recommend cannabis for Amendment 2 qualifiers. These 420 doctors are in every major city and small town and more get approved every day. Many medical marijuana doctors in Florida have opened new cannabis-focused practices and have created new jobs throughout the state.
New investments have come to Florida due to the overwhelming demand for medical marijuana and the vast amount of growth forecast by state representatives monitoring the industry.
Aphria a publically traded Canadian medical marijuana company recently bought into Florida's cannabis industry by purchasing one of the coveted FL dispensary licenses, for an estimated $48 Million dollars. Aphria's deal was complicated but ends up valuing Florida's MMJ market at 2 Billion Dollars by 2020.