Medicinal Cannabis: Crunching the Numbers in U.S. States

There were some very interesting numbers on the medicinal cannabis markets in U.S. States from MJBiz Daily.

One U.S. state is clearly outpacing the rest in terms of the size and growth rate of its medicinal cannabis market: Oklahoma. As MJBiz Daily points out, this is hardly a coincidence.

Oklahoma is one of the few U.S. states that has no “qualifying conditions” restrictions for the use of medicinal cannabis. Physician are free to prescribe cannabis for any medical ailment and patients are free to seek cannabis for any medical issues.

Now the numbers.

Oklahoma leads all medicinal cannabis-only states in terms of the number of new patients per day: 641. That’s a very robust growth rate for a population of only 3.7 million people.

Florida is a close second in terms of new patients per day: 609. But with a population of 18.8 million, Florida has over five times as many people. Thus on a per capita rate, medicinal usage in Oklahoma is increasing at over five times the pace of Florida.

More importantly, Oklahoma also leads U.S. medicinal-only states in terms of the overall percentage of the population using medicinal cannabis, at 4.1% of the population. That is more than double the total in Florida (1.6%).

Incredibly, Oklahoma only legalized medicinal cannabis in June 2018. It took several months for medicinal cannabis to become broadly available in the state. In less than one year, over 4% of Oklahoma’s population has began to consume cannabis medicinally.

For cannabis investors, there are two messages here. First, if U.S. states choose to provide unrestricted access to medicinal cannabis (prescribed by a physician), cannabis will become very popular as a medicinal therapy very quickly.

Why not?

Cannabis is completely safe (non-toxic/non-addictive). It is a natural substance. And its active ingredients – cannabinoids – are produced naturally within the human body.

Cannabis won’t always help medical problems, but it can’t make them worse.

Secondly, when investors are choosing their marijuana stocks and looking at various medicinal cannabis-only markets, they will want to look very carefully at the list of qualifying conditions (if any) in that state. More restrictive access clearly equates to much lower rates of usage – as illustrated by these numbers.

The biggest opportunities for U.S. multi-state operators (MSO’s) are still in the dual-use states, because of the enormous potential for adult use cannabis. But as Oklahoma is proving, there can be big revenue potential in medicinal-only states – if they allow broad access to cannabis.