This caught my eye because there's no way that can be true. Surprise! It has some gems.
Flower accounts for roughly half of all reported monthly cannabis spending, averaging $80.88 per consumer, followed by vape products at $28.40 and edibles at $25.69. Medical cannabis patients report higher spending across every major product category than adult-use consumers, including average monthly flower expenditures of $96.00 compared to $76.70 among adult-use consumers, and edibles spending of $45.61 compared to $20.19.
This tracks with us pretty close after accounting for their average price which is roughly a third lower than ours. Medical spending per patient is about the same as post legalization.
Price is the top purchasing consideration among consumers, cited by 66%, followed by THC potency at 58% and convenience at 40%.
Missouri has neighboring states that are either higher price or not legal. Is price our top consideration? I'm starting to see $100 ounces again. That and $15 8ths are my benchmark or were before this inflation hit the pump.
Missouri launched adult use sales 5 months before we did. They have 60 cultivators. We have 25.
Multilevel modeling found that dispensary market concentration is not significantly associated with purchasing outside the regulated market. Instead, individual-level factors including total cannabis spending, use frequency, and purchasing motivations such as price and convenience account for variation in illicit purchasing behavior.
Note the absence of quality as a consideration. Ouch.
evaluating whether congressional district-based license allocation requirements should be replaced with demand-driven geographic distribution, and conducting further research on informal cannabis redistribution. The report notes that 47% of consumers report receiving cannabis for free at least sometimes, and that more than half of those who obtained cannabis through friends or family say the product originally came from a licensed dispensary
We hate license caps. "Cannabis redistribution"??? Almost 50% of Missouri consumers get some Cannabis for free!
past-month use of alternative cannabinoids remains low among Missouri consumers. THCA recorded the highest past-month use among alternative cannabinoids at 15%, exceeding several traditional product categories including concentrates and beverages
And there you have the answer, or part of it. THCA is illicit sales of Cannabis. The other part is that the analysis is assuming all sales are to Missouri residents. Given the price difference and our experience with sales to out of state residents, one should expect unlicensed sales to be far bigger than 7% of the market. Canada is up to 75% of the market being licensed. Maryland is claiming 50%.