Arkansas medical cannabis regulators voted to issue two additional cultivation licenses in response to some supply concerns in the rapidly growing market.
The state now has awarded the maximum eight cultivation licenses allowed under a 2016 ballot initiative that legalized MMJ in Arkansas.
But only three growers currently are in operation.
The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission had faced a July 10 deadline to decide whether to issue the full number allowed, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The commission also awarded four additional dispensary licenses.
As of June 30, Arkansas’ nearly 64,000 qualified MMJ patients had spent a total of $520,000 a day, or a little more than $8 per person, the newspaper reported, citing state records.
The new edition of the Marijuana Business Factbook, released this week, projects that Arkansas MMJ sales, after a slow start last year, will reach $175 million-$215 million in 2020. Arkansas registered $30 million in medical marijuana sales in 2019.
