Beginning in March 2020, data has been collected and published monthly by the Utah Department of Health regarding many facets of the Utah medical cannabis industry, including the number of patients, amount of cannabis biomass produced, revenue brought in by pharmacies and more.
If the word “data” followed by a reference to a government entity is a turn-off, have no fear! Salt Baked City has sifted through the green data and is proud to present some of the points that are the most interesting and indicative of the future of Utah cannabis.
Patients
Where else can we begin but with the patient numbers?
In April of 2020, about one month into the medical cannabis program, patients were in the low one-to-two thousands. By October, eight months into the program, that number had grown to over 13,681 patients. As of May 19 2021, that number was 29,156.. No longer do Utahns need to feel alone in their cannabis use. With patients in every county in the state, the Green Scene continues to grow.
Unsurprisingly, the counties with the highest number of patients are located along the highly-populated Wasatch Front. Salt Lake County has 11,997 and maintains the spot at the top of the cardholder chart. Utah County was a far distant second with 4,851 cardholders. Weber County edged out Davis County by a few hundred patients with 3,544 and 3,441 cardholders, respectively. The only other county with over one thousand patients is Cache county with 1,355.
The counties with the lowest numbers of cannabis card holders are unsurprisingly and unfortunately, rural counties. These are counties where cannabis access, if it was available, would be a great boon in reducing prescription drug use and abuse. Piute County has the least number of patients with 2 registered as of this month. Wayne and Daggett County have five patients holding down the Green Scene, while Garfield County has eleven. Other counties have surprisingly low numbers for their population demographics, namely Summit, 484 cardholders, and Washington County 721. The stark difference in patient numbers between so-called metropolitan and rural counties, even when scaled down for population size, is staggering. With more and more Qualified Medical Providers (QMPs) registering around the state, we can only hope more patients in rural counties will soon have access to a provider that can help them acquire a medical cannabis card.
The overall number of QMPs has also shown significant growth since the beginning of the program one year ago. There are now 628 QMPs located across the state, housed in some 652 different operating locations. Some QMPs operate multiple locations, hence the existence of more operating locations than actual providers. Again, it is obvious that the more populous areas of the state are garnering the most attention from QMPs as Salt Lake County alone has 276 offices, more than all other counties combined, with the exception of Utah county’s 228 provider locations. With a grand total of 504 providers in those two counties, the total number of all provider locations spread across the remaining 17 counties in the state is 148.
Products and Sales
The growth in the Utah Medical Cannabis program since its inception is something both advocate and economist can appreciate. The upward growth trajectory continues month over month when looking at the numbers for biomass (cannabis) produced and products sold. Clearly, these trends will even out at some point, though that point is likely years away based on current circumstances. For now, we can revel in growth knowing that we are slowly getting steps closer to a fully legal and free cannabis market where anyone can make an effort to pull themselves up by their bud-lined bootstraps. Until then, we can look at the numbers of the medical cannabis program as our sextant, navigating the way to the ‘fiya future.’
The seven cannabis pharmacies that opened over the course of 2020 brought in a combined 200,722 transactions that totaled $25,979,244.68 in revenue (excluding device and educational material sales). Looking at the monthly data, the amount of money spent on medical cannabis products increased every month of 2020 and that trend is likely to continue as patient numbers and available products grow. December ended 2020 with a record $4,299,355.50 in sales revenue while January of 2021 started the year off with a slight dip with over $3,800,000.00 in combined sales.
Supplying this ever-growing demand are eight growers, mostly located in the Northern half of the state. The amount of cannabis biomass produced is a key indicator of the health of the cannabis program as this is where the medicine originates. With growers slowly increasing capacity and further expansions to grow facilities planned, we can assume that similar to the number of card holding patients and revenue intake, biomass production will continue to gradually increase for the next couple of years until market demand has leveled.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the combined biomass produced from March 2020 to March 2021 by all growers was some 30,476.8 pounds – equating almost a pound per registered patient. Some may be wondering, “if so much was grown, why the frequent shortages of cannabis flower this past year?” Of course this wasn’t all sold to patients as raw flower, but was also processed into edibles, cartridges and the myriad of other medical cannabis products Utah patients have come to rely on.
Since the beginning of the medical cannabis program, the products being produced and sold have also come a long way, both in terms of quantity and quality. During the first few months of the program, issues with supply and demand kept many patients reliant on out-of-state and blackmarket purchasing to meet their medicinal needs as cannabis flower and concentrates – two staple products – were hard to come by. This gradually changed through the summer and fall of 2020 and now these products are readily available at every cannabis pharmacy across the state.
When we look at the numbers, it appears that in many ways the Utah Medical Cannabis program is finding its stride. Patients are discovering the relief they need and that is what the Medical Cannabis program should be most proud of. There will be more growing pains to come but Utahns now have another reason to affirmatively say, “This is the place.”
