Major Flower Business Fears Migration to Marijuana

The CEO of 1-800-Flowers frets he might lose some of his best suppliers in states that have burgeoning marijuana industries, saying he’s afraid growers will realize that cannabis could be a more lucrative profession.

Such an exodus would expand the ranks of marijuana growers, adding a crop of seasoned veterans to the industry’s ranks.

“Some growers with enormous greenhouse facilities in California or Colorado or perhaps in Oregon are saying, ‘Is this the best crop I can grow, these flowers for all these florists around the country? Maybe I can switch to cannabis and get 10 times on the revenue line,’” Jim McCann told Fox Business. “That’s a big concern of ours.”

McCann said his New York company hasn’t yet been affected by such an industrial shift. But he sees it looming as a very real possibility.

“A lot of people are on the precipice of making a decision,” he said. “The only places that we know of are legal states, so that’s where we’re seeing it but they also happen to be our best flower producing states.”