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Missouri tops $12 million in marijuana sales during opening rec weekend

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The numbers are in: Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services today offered the first glimpse into just how well the Show-Me State’s first weekend of recreational cannabis sales went.

On Friday, Feb. 3, Missouri’s 198 operating dispensaries combined to sell more than $3 million in recreational marijuana and nearly $2 million in medical cannabis. On Saturday, rec sales eclipsed $3.3 million and medical sales dipped to $1.3 million. Consumers in the Show-Me State scaled back on Sunday, buying close to $2.2 million in adult-use marijuana and about $900,000 in medical product.

The weekend saw a grand total of $12.7 million in weed sales, $8.5 million coming from recreational buyers and the other $4.2 million coming from medical cardholders.

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How to find the legal weed stores opening in Missouri

After a big weekend, stores settle into a normal groove

Last week state officials suprised nearly everyone by giving stores the green light to go ahead with adult-use weed sales on Friday, rather than wait until Monday, as was expected. That kicked off a busy weekend for consumers, who went looking for their nearest store, and retailers, who saw an early surge in sales.

By Monday morning, things had calmed down. A tour of St. Louis-area stores found a smattering of curious customers served by budtenders still catching their breath.

The waiting room at Root66 South Grand sat empty shortly after the popular store opened at 10 a.m. Monday. But the weekend was another story, according to budtender Patrick O’Donnell. After serving some 40 paying customers each day during the medical–only era, the Root66 location — one of three Root66 stores in St. Louis — saw upwards of 200 paying customers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend when state authorities turned the switch to rec.

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“Absolutely insane,” O’Donnell said. “We had lines of people from the time we opened to pretty much the minute we closed.”

Root66 employees found out late last Thursday night that Missouri could start rec sales last Friday instead of today, O’Donnell said. They learned the dispensary had the green light for adult use at 6 a.m. Friday, and met the exciting day with mixed feelings.

They’d slowly been loading up the dispensary, a converted former McDonald’s restaurant, for weeks. Even so, the early start had Root66 out of stock for nearly one-third of its preroll menu.

Customers packed the store’s waiting rooms by the dozen over the weekend, with some 20 to 25 people waiting at a time. Thankfully, lines didn’t get long enough to leave customers outside in the freezing St. Louis cold.

No lines, no waiting on Monday morning

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St. Louis resident Deion Harris stopped by Root66 Monday morning to reload on “Fruit by the Foot” pre-rolls. (Photo: Chris Kudialis for Leafly)

Local resident Deion Harris visited Monday morning to load up on Root66’s popular “Fruit by the Foot” pre-rolls, after burning through the inventory he bought on Friday. Three half-gram joints, sold for $14, was enough to get through one evening, Harris said. But he tripled his order on Monday morning.

“I’m really glad this day is here and that we can all buy legitimate cannabis,” he said. “It’s still mostly cheaper on the street, but you’re definitely getting what you pay for here.”

Viola in St. Louis: Yes, it’s actually open

viola-store-in-st-louis
Pro tip: It’s already open. Despite its Coming Soon sign, the store owned by ex-NBA stars is already serving the people of St. Louis. (Photo: Chris Kudialis for Leafly)

Former NBA stars Al Harrington and Larry Hughes announced just two weeks ago they’d be opening downtown St. Louis’ first dispensary and the city’s only Black-owned weed store. Built right across a small crosswalk from a hulking new Major League Soccer stadium and just down the road from St. Louis’ hockey and baseball stadiums, Viola STL couldn’t have found a better spot for reaching the tens of thousands of sports fans that grace the area nearly every night.

Fast forward two weeks after Harrington and Hughes’ announcement, and a giant sign above Viola’s front entrance still says “Coming Soon.” But guess what: It’s actually open.

The door is unlocked and leads to a waiting room, and then a shopping area where a staff of three smiling budtenders stand ready to serve customers.

The weed for sale is from the grow houses of rival dispensaries: Good Day Farm, Prosper Cannabis and Illicit. But there’s no doubt the much ballyhooed store is already up and running, if not thriving.

“We’re going to have our own flower in here very soon,” said Managing Partner Dan Pettigrew. “We’re really excited to become a big part of this community and Missouri’s industry.”

Good Day Farm: ‘It’s been a fun craziness’

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Good Day Farm’s Brand Manager Luke Gerau shows off the company’s smorgasbord of edibles behind a display table where customers can lift glass coverings to smell samples of popular flower terpene profiles. (Photo: Chris Kudialis for Leafly)

Staffers at Good Day Farm St. Louis spent more than a month building up the store’s inventory for an expected rush of pot buyers on Monday—only to have them show up on Friday. Good Day Farms saw over three times as many paying customers during its first weekend of rec than a typical medical-only weekend. They expect to see that trend to continue in the days ahead.

“The early start was a blessing in disguise because it staggered out the rush and made us more accessible,” said Luke Gerau, Good Day’s brand manager. “We got a ton of customers and it didn’t require anyone having to wait in long lines.”

As part of Good Day expanding its team (200 employees across its 19 dispensaries in Missouri) the number of budtenders at the St. Louis store at any given time expanded from three to five. On Monday morning, the beefed-up staff offered extra assistance to a pair of customers who had the shopping floor all to themselves.

The customers, brothers from St. Louis in their 30s, asked not to be identified. But they smiled as they walked out of the dispensary with eighths of Blueberry Headband and Poison OG flower.

“Enough to get us high,” one of them cracked.

Laurie Gregory, Good Day’s chief marketing officer, said the majority of the products flying off the store’s shelves are flower goodies like pre-rolls and eighths, but added that concentrates and edibles each make up about 15 of total sales. The company also grows and sells Titty Sprinkles, one of Missouri’s most popular strains whose grower donates a portion of proceeds to breast cancer research groups.

“It’s been a crazy few days,” Gregory said, “but it’s a fun craziness.”



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Cannabis

What’s Up With Happy Finland And Marijuana

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Is it supposed to the happiest place in the world – but what’s up with Finland and marijuana?

Finland has again reached the top of the list of happiest countries in the world. Rounding out the top 10 include Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherland, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia. The University of Oxford, publishes the report and takes in data and a series of six variables in the more than 130 countries ranked in the report.  The variables include GDP per capita, freedom, generosity, social support, healthy life expectancy and freedom of corruption. This year the United States and Germany fell off the top 20 completely.

From a size point of view the top ten happiest countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the top 20, only Canada and the U.K. have populations over 30 million.

Related: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

But what’s up with happy Finland and marijuana. Happy Canada was a groundbreaker in legalization weed, opening up some great science based medical benefits and filling the government coffers. The total population of Finland amounted to roughly 5.56 million. The largest age groups were 20 to 39 year-olds (1.39 million), and 40 to 59 year-olds (1.38 million), which made up over half of the population. So they should be up and with the times right?  Well, it is complicated.

What's Up With Happy Finland And Marijuana

Unless it’s prescribed for medicinal purposes (which is highly rare in Finland), it’s illegal to use cannabis. But an estimated 100,000 people still use it in the country every month, and usage has grown over the past few years. In an updated  procedure, the police issue summary fines for most personal use violation, and cases are not brought to court unless the defendant so desires. An aggravated drug offense and possession with intent to redistribute (possession for sale) are always brought to court and penalties are harsher.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) government is against the legalization of cannabis and against decriminalizing it.  However, his party’s youth wing came out in favour of decriminalising all drugs in 2022, before being shut down by its parent party.

RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

A citizens’ initiative aiming to legalize cannabis will go to Parliament for consideration after gaining 50,000 signatures on World Weed Day in 2019.

Of the top 10 happiest countries Denmark, Israel, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Australia have legal weed. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland do not.



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BDSA

New Jersey Is Taking A Huge Bite Of The Big Apple’s Weed

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New Jersey is definitely the shining star when it comes the legal weed market.

New York City is the supposed to be the crossroads of the world…but it seems things are more headed to the Jersey shore.  With their neighbor’s chaotic rollout of legal cannabis, it seems New  Jersey is taking a huge bite of the Big Apple’s weed – at least the legal part of it! New Jersey’s cannabis market earned $800+ million in medicinal and recreational cannabis sales in 2023.  That is compared to New York’s $174 million.

RELATED: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

New Jeresy’s rollout of legal cannabis has been smooth and well received by the population and consumers.  Their program was up and running in April of 2022 and the industry brought in a healthy $555+ million in 9 months.  The tax revenue has been a boon for the state and there hasn’t been in major hiccups.  This is great compared to their next door neighbor which seems to lurch from issue to issue.

Dispensary Job Market Still Strong Despite Lockdowns
Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Stringer/Getty Images

Leading analyst firm BDSA which also including cannabis predicts if New York State is able to correct the mess left in the rollout – they can be the #1 market and possibly be the first state to hit $2 billion.  It is estimated the licensed businesses lost $1.2+ billion in revenue to the illegal stores just in 2023.  And the state lost tax revenue on the amount.

RELATED: People Who Use Weed Also Do More Of Another Fun Thing

New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) Executive Director Jeff Brown predicts they state will be the premier region for cannabis sales.  Ultimately it will be good for state coffers.  The negative is the only big money difference from the Big Apple is in legal and tax revenue.  New York still has over 1,500 illicit dispensaries in New York City alone.  The business is there, they just are contributing to the black market which goes unregulated, unrecorded and undisciplined.

Currently, in their mid-range predictions, BDSA has faith New York will course correct and be the top state with New Jersey second.

 

 



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Cannabis

Does John Cena Use Weed

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He has been hailed as the new “Rock”…but does John Cena kick back and use weed?

John Cena is having a moment. People are buzzing his star is rising and he could be another Rock. Which is something considering he Rock built an empire worth $800+ million.  Like the Rock, Cena is not afraid of hard work, laughing at himself, or comedy.  But does John Cena use weed?  Would it go with his squeaky clean imagine?

RELATED: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

He started out as a wrestler and signed to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2001. In 2018, he went part-time with wrestling to focus on expanding his acting and rapping career. A record 16-time world champion as recognized by WWE, Cena is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional pro wrestlers of all time.

WWE hasn’t enforced marijuana testing in ages, which was lead by the players.  Although cannabis in the entertainment industry is not uncommon.

Cena has crafted his image and has popped up on the Today show with goodnatured appearances alongside his string of recent movies. His most recent, Ricky Stanicky, leans into comedy heavily. He was a presenter at this year’s Oscars while also taking a nod at a streaker who appeared 50 years ago.

Cena has long denied taking drugs, including steroids.  But the rumor of his steroid use continues to trail him like the whiff of a skunk.  He does drink alcohol and has built up a pretty strong reputation for being able to toss quite a large amount back and still function. But it seems he has either not used marijuana or kept it very, very on the down low.

RELATED: People Who Use Weed Also Do More Of Another Fun Thing

We know in honor of the 4/20 ‘holiday’ he was the now gone Ellen show and played a game called ‘Marijuana Strain Or Show Dog’. The audience lapped it up and he seemed to enjoy the wink wink nod of it.

So while it appears he doesn’t consume, it doesn’t seem like he judges those who do and can appreciate a good chill.

 



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