KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One month after Missouri legalized marijuana for recreational use, the inevitable spike that cannabis businesses first experienced has not come down.
"From there it was like a rocket ship the rest of the day," said Josh Mitchem, CEO of CLOVR Cannabis.
CLOVR manufactures marijuana products to send to dispensaries across Missouri.
Mitchem says on an average day before recreational legalization, the cannabis industry would make $1 million in sales for medicinal marijuana. When adult use was legalized Feb. 3, the first weekend after saw $9 million alone in adult-use sales across the state.
"We didn’t expect quite what we’ve seen this far, so we’ve just been drinking from a fire hose," Mitchem said.
The extra growth has caused Mitchem and his team to adjust to meet demand.
"We’ve increased our staff by about 120%, we’ve had to force overtime, working Saturdays, a lot of crews are working 10-12 hour days throughout the week, too, so just doing our best to keep up," he said.
Mitchem thinks part of the reason behind trending sales is proximity. Not only are Kansas residents crossing over to buy cannabis but so are Illinois residents due to the exponentially cheaper tax rate.
"So they can buy a lot of the same products that are sold there in Illinois, but they’re 20% cheaper because their tax is like 30% and ours is nine," Mitchem said.
As far as when the demand will taper off, that remains unclear. If interest does not settle, there may be price hikes and less flower to go around.
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