My friend from Cleveland’s west side decided not to renew her annual medical cannabis card in Ohio recently because of the associated costs: nearly $200 for the card, and then another $50 in state registration fees.

I encouraged her to sign up for a medical card last year after pharmaceuticals weren’t doing the trick for her sleep, which is affected by a spine issue that’s caused ongoing pain down her leg and back. She didn’t have a previous history with cannabis, but she found relief with a certain brand of gummies.

So, with a good night’s rest being priceless, why wasn’t the $250 renewal worth it? Well, with recent price decreases next door in Michigan, that $250 could supply her with a year’s worth of gummies, or so she tells me. She found her preferred edibles brand for as low as $10 for a 10 pack just across the state line—three to four times cheaper than in Ohio.

I thought of my friend while writing an article Sept. 15 about soaring demand in Michigan amidst record-low dispensary prices, including $116.84 per ounce of dry flower on average at adult-use retailers in August. That’s a 47.5% decrease from August 2021. The demand for vape products and infused edibles have followed similar trends.

Thanks to the demand uptick, Michigan retailers seem to be doing OK with a record-high $189.4 million in adult-use sales last month. Each dispensary location averaged roughly $341,000 in adult-use sales in August compared to roughly $277,500 in January, despite 106 more active licensees in the market.

But as Michigan prices fall, smaller growers are feeling the competitive pressures: many called on state regulators to consider a licensing moratorium—much like in Oregon—during the Cannabis Regulatory Agency’s quarterly meeting Sept. 14 in Lansing. They worry larger operators are in a “race to the bottom.”

But does a regulated market mean ensuring the small guys can compete by controlling supply floods? That remains up to individual states, which have taken various approaches to licensing structures and attempts to try and avoid out-of-state diversion.

The diversion in Michigan currently includes legal sales to non-resident shoppers.

­­-Tony Lange, Associate Editor

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