Florida Medical Cannabis Collective: 07.15.2019 Update – Industry Update, Flower Overview

It’s been exactly 2 months since our last industry update, and the Florida medical cannabis market continues to grow at a steady rate: both in the number of patients, and dispensary/product availability.

State of the Florida Cannabis Industry: July 15, 2019

Qualified Patients (Active ID Card): 243,065

Total Patients: 323,506

It’s been just over 3 months since SB 182 passed and allowed Florida dispensaries to sell smokable cannabis flower. Since our last update, the supply issues have slightly improved as many dispensaries expand their operations and most areas now have more choices for where patients can get their products.

Trulieve is still the main supplier of flower in the state by a long shot: they delivered nearly five times as many milligrams of medical marijuana as the nearest competitor as of the July 12 OMMU update.

However, Trulieve’s continuing to be plagued by customer service issues and long wait times have driven many patients to purchasing flower from other Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTCs), who have been building their own stock of smokable flower for the past few months. I believe that for the remainder of 2019, we will start to see the industry level out a bit – albeit very slowly. Trulieve has been the “giant” of the industry until now, and they will continue to provide the large majority of cannabis products in Florida; however, their relative dominance of the market will start to very slowly shrink as other MMTCs rise to the competition.

At this point, almost all Florida MMTCs offer some sort of flower product. The big challenge for most of them now will be to expand throughout the state, particularly to the Panhandle, which still does not have nearly the same amount of options and most of the rest of the state south of the Big Bend area.

Brief Overview of each MMTC’s Flower

Trulieve

As the first MMTC to provide whole flower products, Trulieve has had the most time to refine their product. Their flower has been consistently good quality over the past few months, with only a couple of batches earning a few heated posts on Reddit; it is worth noting that Trulieve went out of their way to credit the patients that received the bad batches, showing their commitment to customer service even as they deal with a huge influx of new patients.

Trulieve also has pre-rolls available; I found these to be enjoyable, and they seem to get batches of them fairly often. Stock issues for both whole flower and pre-rolls are not quite as bad as they were a couple of month ago.

Curaleaf

As of the last update, Curaleaf was known for being the first MMTC to offer large quantities of whole flower: quarters, ounces, etc. However, after a few strange price increases and a few weeks where they seemed to completely run out of flower, patients have been coming to Reddit to share batches of their flower lately.

It seems that Curaleaf may finally be building a stock of loose flower and preroll, and all reviews we’ve seen on Reddit lately indicate that the flower quality is improving as well. Curaleaf offers many unique and “niche” type strains, making them a worthy option to keep around.

RiSE

RiSE continues to hold their reputation for having arguably the best medical marijuana flower in Florida. Most all patients on social media continue to rave about their products, which are often near 30% THC for whole flower strains. RiSE continues to expand their locations and delivery services throughout the state; hopefully, we will see them somewhere in the western Panhandle soon!

GrowHealthy

GrowHealthy has been expanding their locations in South Florida over the past couple of months; however, flower stock has seemed to be very limited. There have been rumors that something went wrong with one of their crops, leading to possible stock shortages throughout the year. The current lack of posts about GrowHealthy flower might be an indicator that there is some truth to this.

From what we have seen, though, it appears GrowHealthy still holds a firm position as having some of the best quality cannabis flower in Florida. Their batches are often above 25% THC, making them a top choice for the lucky patients who are able to get their hands on some.

VidaCann

VidaCann is one of the few MMTCs that has actually expanded into the western Panhandle, so I was able to get an eighth of their Duct Tape flower a few weeks ago.

I see now why so many patients rave about the quality of their flower: it was truly premium, and had one of the most interesting and enjoyable terpene profiles I’ve found in the Florida market to this date.

There were a few batches a month or two ago that were suspected to have mold, but VidaCann has not had any issues with their flower quality since then. Availability seems to be spotty at best; we figure this is due to their expansion throughout the state, and will improve over the next few months.

MUV (Altmed Florida)

 After a few weeks of what seemed like zero flower availability throughout the state, posts of MUV’s premium-quality flower have been surfacing on various social media again over the past couple of weeks. MUV continues to be praised for consistent high-quality flower, and many patients would argue that they have the best flower in the state of Florida.

MUV is unique in that they also offer loose flower in 1 gram qualities in addition to eighths, making them a great choice for patients looking to sample a variety of strains.

Liberty Health Sciences

Liberty Health Sciences has quickly made itself known as the “budget”, low quality option for Florida patients.

With eighths at $28 and their “Papa’s Herb” product line that offers eighths of whole flower for $25, they do make a good choice for patients who need medication on a budget.

Reviews of Liberty’s flower have been mostly negative, with the best reviews saying that their flower “gets the job done” as far as medicating effects go. With recent reports of mold and lack of quality control in their flower, we will be staying away from their flower until they can prove that they are able to keep a consistently good-quality product available.

Fluent (Formerly Knox)

Formerly known as Knox Medical, Fluent rebranded themselves a couple of month ago and began offering whole flower and pre-rolls not long after.

As somewhat of a surprise to many patients who knew Knox for unremarkable products, Fluent has exploded into the industry with rave reviews of their whole flower batches.

I’ve actually been able to try two different strains of their whole flower, and can confirm that both batches were on an entire other level from the other flower products I have tried. Fluent confirmed that all of their flower is hand trimmed “so that even the most experienced connoisseur can appreciate the quality.”

We hope and expect to see Fluent continue to produce high quality flower, and expand their product availability over the next few months.

Surterra Wellness

Surterra was the last “major” MMTC to arrive on the whole flower scene; it was only last week that they announced the release of their whole flower pre-rolls.

After trying each of their strains, I can confirm that the pre-rolls provide quality medicating effects. Though the first batches were lacking in the terpene department, I feel that we will see this improve over the next few months. Hopefully, Surterra will eventually consider their stance on loose flower and realize its value in the market – would love to see what they can offer there.

Harvest

Harvest has made a name for themselves since our last update, offering many unique strains of flower throughout the state of Florida – all for $35/eighth. One might assume this means their flower is of lower quality, but reports and reviews over the past few weeks indicate otherwise. Most batches have been near or flirting with the 20% THC mark, and most reviews indicate that these strains have nice terpene content and are well-cured.

With vertical integration and desire of profits causing most all other MMTCs to average around $50/eighth, Harvest and their lower-priced options are much needed in the Florida market. We hope to see them expand throughout the state over the course of the next couple of years, and help force other MMTCs to lower their prices because of the increased competition.

3 Boys Farm

3 Boys Farm has a bit of a cult following on social media – known for their “#dognotdawg” campaign, a reference to the spelling of the Chemdog strain.

Initial reviews of their flower have been positive, and they are yet another MMTC to offer a unique selection of strains, some of which are even considered “exotic”.

3 Boys Farm is currently delivery-only in Florida, so a very limited number of patients have been able to try their flower. Interestingly, 3 Boys is the first Florida MMTC to offer flower before offering any other products. We look forward to seeing more from them, and eventually being able to try them for ourselves.

MedMen

MedMen announced as recently as this week that they would offer pre-rolled flower at their sole location. We’ve seen a couple of text reviews on Reddit that indicate the quality is hit-or-miss, with some strains being good, and others not good at all.

We haven’t seen any images of the pre-rolls, but we will be looking out for them, and share them here soon.

Closing Thoughts

Since the passing of SB 182, the availability and selection of smokable cannabis flower in Florida has grown at a rapid rate. With talks of vertical integration possibly coming to an end in Florida, we could soon be looking at an entirely different market – so stay tuned to this site and our social media for daily updates on what’s happening in the industry.

For now, however, we are happy with the progress the state’s industry is making. Availability is going up, prices are slowly coming down, and access is becoming more widespread. We expect to see these trends continue throughout 2019, and will continue to keep you updated on the latest as it happens.

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