Are Florida medical cannabis operators looking to exit the $2 billion market?

Key points in this article:

• The 22 companies awarded vertically integrated Florida medical marijuana treatment center licenses on Sept. 11 first applied in April 2023. 
• Since then, adult-use marijuana legalization has failed twice and valuations in the MMJ-only market have declined significantly.
• With each new licensee required to post a $5 million surety bond by Sept. 25, operators whose original investor groups have moved on face a significant hurdle. 
• Listings of Florida-based cannabis assets have spiked, but analysts expect the current wave of exits to be short term.  

The 22 companies awarded vertically integrated Florida medical cannabis permits on Sept. 11 applied for them more than three years ago, in market conditions that no longer exist.  

As of late 2021, a Florida medical marijuana treatment center license sold for tens of millions of dollars. Now, the asking price for a vertically integrated MMTC license in the state is about $4 million, according to recent listings.

“I’ve seen more listings in Florida in the last three months than I have in the last 10 years,” Ryan George, founder of California-based THC industry real estate marketplace 420 Property, told MJBizDaily.

The price for a Florida-based cannabis businesses on 420 Property runs $3 million to $4 million. “One for sale now is asking $4 million or so, and it’s license only,” said George, who suspects it’s one of the newly awarded licenses.

Regulatory deadlines are forcing license-winners to decide quickly whether to move forward – or to exit. A $5 million surety bond was due by Sept. 25.

Finding the cash could be challenging for some operators, said Sally Kent Peebles, a partner at cannabis law firm Vicente’s Florida office.

Some of the investor groups that backed applications in 2023 may no longer be willing to fund a cannabis project, according to Andrew Livingston, who leads market analytics at cannabis law firm Vicente.

But with a growing patient base and room for growth, “I expect the rapid-fire license sales that are occurring this month to be an outlier,” Livingston said.

What were Florida medical cannabis licenses worth?

An operating Florida MMTC license was once one of the most coveted assets in U.S. cannabis. 

On the market’s launch after voters legalized MMJ in 2016, regulators capped the number of licenses at 13, with the promise of an additional four permits for every additional 100,000 medical marijuana patients.

License-holders had to be vertically integrated and could open an unlimited number of dispensaries after Tallahassee-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp., the state’s biggest operator and one of the biggest in the country, defeated a statewide cap of 25 in state court.

With the belief that adult-use legalization was imminent, Las Vegas-based cannabis MSO Planet 13 agreed to buy a Florida MMTC license for $55 million in cash in September 2021. 

At the time, co-CEO Larry Scheffler called Florida “one of our most coveted markets,” adding Planet 13 wanted in “prior to a transition to adult use.” 

The following year, Green Sentry Holdings closed its acquisition of MedMen’s Florida assets – 14 dispensaries in prime retail locations and a 30,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility- for $63 million and assumed lease liabilities. 

What is a Florida medical marijuana permit worth now?

By 2023, Planet 13 reported losing nearly $40 million on its Florida purchase. The following May, SGW FL Enterprises bought Planet 13 Florida for $9 million.  

In July 2026, Planet 13 agreed to be acquired by Minneapolis-based MSO Vireo Growth in an all-stock deal.

Andrew Livingston, who leads market analytics at cannabis law firm Vicente, said the comparison across those years isn’t straightforward. 

“Comparing the value of an operational Florida license sold in 2023 with multiple dispensaries and thousands of square feet of cultivation space is going to be very different than a paper license sold in 2026 that was just awarded,” Livingston told MJBizDaily. 

Cannabis market values are generally down over the last five year. And two efforts to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state, both bankrolled by Trulieve, have failed.   

“The Florida market is still growing but at a slower pace,” Livingston said.  

“But with billions in medical sales, there is still room for new entrants to gain a market position.” 

Why did the market shift?

Florida’s nearly $2 billion medical marijuana market has remained relatively flat, with little year-over-year revenue growth in 2025 and 2026, according to data from analytics firm Headset.

“The growth of the market is starting to wane because you can only get so many medical patients,” cannabis economist Beau Whitney told MJBizDaily.  

The state Office of Medical Marijuana Use reported 941,271 active patients as of Sept. 11, suggesting the state may be required to issue more than 22 permits. 

Adding more licenses will increase consumer access but divide the same demand among more dispensaries, lowering average revenue per company, he said.

Meanwhile, the illicit market is flourishing, and an oversupply of cannabis product has resulted in heavy price compression on the legal side, he said. 

The state’s hemp-derived cannabinoid market has also taken off and is now several times larger than its legal medical cannabis market, Whitney said.  

It’s unclear when Florida may join the ranks of adult-use states after cannabis companies spent more than $200 million on failed legalization efforts in 2024 and earlier this year.  

Is the Florida cannabis market saturated?

With 170 dispensaries in the state, Trulieve is the biggest player. Verano Holdings operates 86 dispensaries under its MUV brand, and Curaleaf Holdings is third with 78 dispensaries.  

But at a total of 781 dispensaries statewide, the market is not yet saturated, according to Peebles.   

About half the market is within reach of new entrants, but the question is whether they can afford to compete for it, she said. 

Joe Puglise, CEO of Florida operator Fino Cannabis, which currently operates one dispensary, said the new entrants to the market are unlikely to threaten existing operators’ businesses.  

“Even with 22 entrants, that’s still a pittance of licenses in a state of this size from a population and revenue standpoint,” he said.  

And because license-holders must be vertically integrated, it will be at least two years to build out cultivation facilities and stock dispensaries, Puglise added.  

“Even if the desire was to open five or six dispensaries, how are you going to source them?” he said. 

“In other states, you could open and stock with product from the wholesale market. You can’t do that in Florida.”  

Are Florida medical cannabis permit winners looking to exit?

For the license-winners, the clock started ticking the moment their permits landed Sept. 11. 

Licensees have 180 days to request cultivation authorization, 270 days for processing and 365 days for dispensing. The companies cannot cultivate, process or sell marijuana until the OMMU approves the requests, according to letters sent to the new licensees.

While the consequences of missing those deadlines are unclear, Florida law prohibits an operator from renewing an MMTC license if they have not begun cultivating, processing and dispensing marijuana.

Annual license renewal fees are about $1.3 million.

Still, Livingston expects the value of the newly licensed businesses to increase.

“As new licensees receive final authorization from the Florida Department of Health and the risk of ongoing litigation settles, the value of these new businesses will grow,” Livingston said. 

Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.