Forget the previous week’s Black Friday — this was Green Friday (and way less insipid) for Maryland residents. It was the day legal medical marijuana sales went into effect.
It’s been more than four years since voters passed MMJ to now, when 10 fully-licensed dispensaries began to sell their wares in the Old Line State last week. Patients who were recommended medical MJ by their doctors waited in line for hours, but dispensary owners were not able to match supply to demand.
The supply of flower was all gone first, leaving store shelves empty within days. Dispensary owners found themselves compelled to put an upper limit on the amount of weed long-waiting cannabis enthusiasts were allowed to purchase.
Although the state awarded 14 cultivation licenses, Curio Wellness is the the only grower ready to provide the flower to Maryland’s 10 dispensaries. However, even they were simply not prepared to with enough to go around.
However, it isn’t all bad news. Hawaii was in the same boat earlier this year when they were unable to keep up with demand, so Maryland dispensaries feel like it’s par for the course as they finally get to sell some of that sticky-icky.
According to local press reports they have a reason to be happy. For example, the Kannavis dispensary in Frederick moved more than 200 medical marijuana patients through their door on Saturday and cleaned the store out. According to reports, the majority had purchased the store’s quarter-ounce limit for flower — They had two strains at $112 and another for $125 for a quarter ounce.
This demonstrates the great discrepancy between states that have legalized cannabis — those prices are the out-the-door price for full ounces of cannabis in Colorado for example.
Medical patients in Maryland will have to wait for the industry to settle down. Currently, there is low supply but a very high demand. Therefore, only patients who pre-registered their needs are getting their medicine. Also, investors are keen to cover their high start-up costs, so cannabis is likely to be expensive at first.
Maryland marijuana users are also the victims of a slow to move government. So far, 92 dispensaries have been approved for preliminary licenses but not received the rubber stamp of final approval.
