Florida’s medical cannabis industry has continued to expand since our last update on 08.20.2019. Each Medical Marijuana Treatment Center (MMTC) continues to open new dispensary locations throughout the state, and more products are becoming available at each one.
With respect to the availability of flower (which seems to be the preferred form of cannabis medication for many patients), there have been some ups and downs in the industry since our last update. You may remember my reporting that the industry was beginning to have an abundance of flower at the time of the last update. Unfortunately, availability seemed to enter a decline for much of September and October. The good news is that this trend seems to be reversing, and flower is becoming more widely available again throughout the state.
State of the Florida Cannabis Industry: November 07, 2019
Qualified Patients (Active ID Card): 280,149 – It seems the growth of this number is slowing, possibly due to former patients not renewing their cards.
Total Patients: 393,663
Numbers above provided as of the latest OMMU Update – 11.01.2019
Trulieve continues to dominate the Florida market in sales of all forms of medical cannabis, selling over four times as much medical marijuana (measured in mg THC) of the closest competitor (Surterra Wellness) and over three times the amount of smokable marijuana (Liberty Health Sciences). With rapid expansion of dispensary locations – including 2 new locations in the western Panhandle, one of the most underserved areas in the state – it looks like Trulieve will continue to dominate the market for the foreseeable future, though other MMTCs are beginning to significantly increase their numbers as well.
All Florida MMTCs (except for Columbia Care) now offer flower, and have been offering it for some time. It doesn’t look like Columbia Care has plans to offer flower any time soon, either.
The Panhandle (particularly the western portion) continues to be the most underserved area in the state, due a host of factors, namely the unfriendly political climate towards cannabis in those areas. However, there have been several dispensaries to open in this area over the past 2 months, so perhaps more access is finally on its way for all patients.
Brief Overview of each MMTC’s Flower
Top 3 Suppliers of Flower in Florida (by number of oz. sold as of the one week period before the last OMMU update):
- Trulieve – 6,739.755
- Liberty Health Sciences – 2,927.098
- AltMed Florida (MÜV) – 1,539.419
Trulieve
Trulieve has been consistently producing high-quality flower for several months now. In October, they introduced their “TruFlower Minis” – eighths of small “popcorn nugs” for $27/eighth. This product was extremely popular, and resulted in long lines forming at dispensaries throughout the state, sometimes well before the location’s opening time. Unfortunately, supply has not been able to meet demand for many patients, due to Florida’s restrictive vertical-integration requirement for MMTCs to grow, package, distribute, and sell their own cannabis products – “from seed to sale.”
Trulieve continues to provide superior customer service in the Florida industry, though there was a period of a few weeks in late September where their online website seemed to go without being updated, leading to expressions of frustration from some patients on social media. Thankfully, this issue seems to have been resolved in recent weeks, and the site is functioning as it used to again.
Trulieve’s overall flower quality, and quality of all products in general, seems to be improving and staying more consistent. We expect this trend to continue as their company rapidly grows in all areas.
Trulieve’s full-size flower ranges from $33 to $53 for an eighth, depending on time and effort required to grow the strain in question.
Concentrates: Trulieve currently offers cannabis concentrates in the form of distillate, shatter, crumble, RSO, and rosin.
Curaleaf
Over the past couple of weeks, there has been an influx of posts on social media that show greatly improved quality of flower from Curaleaf. Reviews from patients indicate that the overall quality of taste, smell, and effects are better as well – though there have been a couple of mixed reviews that describe batches with weak or undesirable terpene profiles.
Oddly enough, Curaleaf processed slightly less smokable flower on this update than they did during the time of our last update. This may just be the natural ups and downs of production, as availability seems to be about the same as it was back then.
Curaleaf has some of the more expensive flower in the state, so it’s good to see that at least the quality of the flower is improving. Hopefully this significant improvement of their flower quality is a sign of good things to come in the near future.
Curaleaf’s flower ranges from $47.50/eighth an eighth to $57.50/eighth based on overall quality and THC percentage, with some outliers if quality is significantly higher or lower than their norm. They currently do not offer smalls or minis.
Concentrates: Curaleaf currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate, shatter, and wax.
RiSE
RiSE has been a favorite of South Florida patients for several months now, and they continue to steadily pump out batches of extremely high-quality flower. Patients still rave about their products on social media, and if the pictures we’ve been seeing are any indication, their flower is surely some of the best in the state.
Unfortunately, RiSE hasn’t opened any additional locations since our last update; they currently only have 5 locations open in Florida. We hope to see them expand their presence soon, and produce even more of the high quality cannabis that we’re seeing from them.
Rise offers flower for $50/eighth, and their “smalls” (same as Trulieve’s minis – small, popcorn nugs) are $35/eighth.
Concentrates: RiSE currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate.
GrowHealthy
GrowHealthy has expanded from 6 to 9 locations in the past couple of months, again, mostly in South Florida. Their flower is some of the most expensive in the industry at $50/eighth (and no lower-priced smalls or minis). Reviews of their flower on social media have been mostly positive and indicative of high-quality flower, though there have been a few batches that made me feel bad for the patient who paid $50/eighth for the flower that I saw in their images.
Fortunately, GrowHealthy seems to have some of the highest quality flower in the state when they get it right, and a selection of strains that no other MMTCs seem to offer at this time. We hope to see GrowHealthy continue to expand throughout the state and produce more high-quality flower in the near future.
Concentrates: GrowHealthy currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate.
Cresco Florida (Formerly VidaCann)
Though the rebranding hasn’t seemed to become apparent on any of their products or dispensary locations yet, the OMMU website now lists VidaCann as Cresco due to their acquisition earlier this year.
As of our last update, VidaCann had completely stopped producing flower due to issues with their grow facility. They began releasing very limited batches in September, which became more frequent during the month of October. It seems that they are beginning to offer flower regularly again; hopefully they are back in the groove of having flower every week as they were at the beginning of the year.
The first batches of the new/recent flower from VidaCann in September were unfortunately not nearly the quality that their flower was earlier in the year, but it seems that the most recent batches in the past couple of weeks are back on par with what we’ve come to expect from VidaCann – some batches recently have registered as high as 29% THC.
VidaCann has also started offering their flower “smalls” since our last update – these are the same as Trulieve’s “minis”; they are small popcurn nugs sold for a lower price. VidaCann’s regular flower is $50/eighth, and their smalls are $40/eighth.
With 13 locations open in Florida, VidaCann is in the “mid range” of Florida MMTCs in terms of size/coverage. Here’s to seeing much more premium quality flower from them soon!
Concentrates: Cresco/VidaCann currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate – available in both syringe and glass jar containers.
MÜV (Altmed Florida)
MÜV has more than doubled their flower production since our last update, taking the No. 3 slot for most cannabis flower dispensed throughout the state. They also now offer two pricings for flower: T1 is their full-size flower, which is $50/eighth. T2 is the equivalent of smalls or minis, and is $40/eighth.
MÜV hasn’t missed a beat with producing high quality flower that has patients raving across social media. They’ve also expanded their footprint throughout the state, and have expanded as far north as Jacksonville. (We’re still waiting for them to open up in the western Panhandle!)
Concentrates: MÜV offers concentrate in the forms of distillate, shatter, crumble, terp sauce, rosin, and RSO.
Liberty Health Sciences
Liberty Health Sciences (LHS) has arguably made the most progress this year in terms of their flower availability and quality. LHS started their flower production in Spring 2019 with $28 eighths that were available in very limited batches, and the reviews of the flower in these first batches were generally negative. There were also major concerns of mold and mites, and entire batches of flower were reportedly disposed of due to this.
At the time of our last update, LHS had resolved many of their major quality issues, and began producing much more flower – to the point that they moved up to #3 flower production in the state.
Liberty has continued that momentum over the past few months, and dispensed nearly 3,000 ounces of flower in the week of the most recent OMMU update; they now produce the 2nd highest amount of flower in the state, second only to Trulieve.
In the past couple of weeks, LHS increased the prices of some of their flower strains, which were all originally $28/eighth. Their Blue Dream flower increased to $33, and several new strains were released at $40/eighth. LHS stated that the quality of their flower would be greatly improved after the price increase, and all recent reviews of their flower on social media indicate that this is exactly what is happening. This is promising, and we hope LHS will continue with this momentum of improved quality, especially since they feel it is enough to charge more money for certain strains.
Liberty also offers a second tier of their flower in their “Papa’s Herb” line, which is priced at $25/eighth. These batches are typically lower THC than the rest of their flower, but they are often very good quality in their own right.
Concentrates: Liberty Health Sciences currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate.
Fluent
Fluent continues to offer limited releases of flower, though they have seemed to increase their availability within the past month. Quality has been generally very high, as is usual from Fluent, though there was a batch of “Lyra” (Sweet Kush) flower I purchased from them last month that may have been some of the weakest medical cannabis flower I’ve tried.
Thankfully, their “Polaris” (Grandaddy Purple) flower that is pictured above was much better when I paid them another visit a couple of weeks later. Most reviews of their flower have remained very positive.
Fluent offers most of their flower for $50/eighth, though they will lower it to $45 or $40 for an eighth depending on the THC amount.
Concentrates: Fluent currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate.
Surterra Wellness
Surterra continues to offer pre-rolls at most of their locations. They also removed a previous limit of 3 pre-rolls per patient per day, allowing for patients to stock up on this form of medication. Surterra’s prerolls used to be sold for $8/each, but are now sold in packs of 2 for $15.
There have been no indications that Surterra is anywhere close to offering a loose flower product, though some buzz around social media says they are learning how to grow quality flower with a high aesthetic value and consistent medical quality.
Concentrates: Surterra currently offers concentrates in the form of distillate.
Harvest
Harvest is another relatively affordable option for Florida medical cannabis patients, with all of their eighths priced at $35/eighth.
Harvest still isn’t producing much flower (only around 171 ounces as of the last OMMU update), and reviews on social media are few and far between. Reviews have been mixed: some patients have said Harvest has the worst flower they’ve had legal or otherwise, while others complimented the cure and terpene profiles.
We’ll continue to keep our eye on Harvest to see if they try to increase their presence in the Florida medical marijuana market.
Concentrates: Harvest only offers concentrates in the form of distillate vape carts at this time.
One Plant (Formerly 3 Boys Farm)
One Plant underwent a rebranding since our last update. They’re also trying to make some moves in the industry: they offered an unprecedented $125/ounce special last month, and are opening their first brick & mortar storefront location in Boynton Beach tomorrow.
Reviews of OnePlant flower have been generally mixed to negative. While the flower typically looks good in images found online, many patients complained about overly dry flower and a complete lack of a terpene profile in some strains. This has been disappointing to see, as 3 Boys Farm was often purported to be bringing some of the best cannabis flower to the Florida industry in their first days of providing flower via delivery.
Hopefully, we will see One Plant up their flower quality and offer more low-priced quantity specials as they continue to expand their operation.
Concentrates: One Plant currently only offers flower at this time; there are no concentrates available.
MedMen
Medmen has rapidly expanded from one to seven storefront locations since our last update in August. However, only one of those – the original West Palm Beach location – is currently offering flower. In fact, MedMen dispensed the least amount of smokable flower of any MMTC as of the last OMMU update, with just over 111 ounces dispensed that week.
Though many of patients are opposed to MedMen due to their stance against allowing home grow in Florida, the reviews of their flower have been generally positive. We hope that they will get flower to their other 6 locations soon.
Concentrates: MedMen only offers concentrates in the form of distillate vape carts at this time.
Closing Thoughts
The Florida medical cannabis industry continues to grow at a steady rate, as each MMTC continues to expand their operations throughout the state, and expand their product availability. Flower selection and availability continue to increase (albeit slowly), and overall quality seems to be on a steady incline.
It’s been refreshing to see many MMTCs offer more affordable flower options in the forms of minis, smalls, etc. – this is a good sign of things to come as patient access and affordability continues to increase throughout the state into 2020.
If you’re a medical cannabis patient in Florida right now, enjoy the ride. Industry conditions are steadily improving, and it’s my belief that they’re only going to continue to get much better as we close 2019 and begin the next decade.
Be sure to join our email subscriber list and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date with all the latest in the Florida medical cannabis industry! Don’t forget to join our email subscriber list as well; this will ensure that you stay up-to-date will all develops in the Collective and the Florida medical cannabis industry! You can find a quick-subscribe button in the righthand column on this site.
Florida Medical Cannabis Collective 
1 thought on “Florida Medical Cannabis Collective: 11.07.2019 – Industry Update, MMTC/Flower Overview”