Florida to expand sizzling medical marijuana market with four new licenses

Florida’s $200 million medical cannabis industry has spurred the state to issue an additional four “medical marijuana treatment center” licenses.

The state health department expects to be swamped with as many as 400 applications for the lucrative licenses, according to the News Service of Florida.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The expansion was triggered when the number of patients exceeded 100,000 earlier this spring. The milestone also allows each of the 13 existing licensees to each open five more dispensary locations.
• As of June 29, the Florida MMJ patient count was approaching 130,000 and growing at rate of more than 2,500 patients a week.
• State health officials also announced that they had issued a medical marijuana license to Nature’s Way Nursery of Miami Inc. The decision came on the heels of an administrative law judge’s recommendation that sharply criticized the state for its license scoring process.

Marijuana Business Factbook 2018 projects that MMJ sales in Florida will reach $175 million to $235 million this year.