PROVIDENCE – More money was spent on medical marijuana than for adult nonmedical use during the first week of legal recreational sales in Rhode Island.
The state’s six marijuana dispensaries, including the five licensed for recreational sales, sold more than $1.63 million worth of cannabis combined from Dec. 1-7, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported.
Building a Strong Data Foundation in the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key priority in the boardroom and across management —…
Learn More
Recreational sales were $786,000, with $845,400 sold to medical marijuana patients, according to the R.I. Department of Business Regulation.
The state does not release sales from the individual dispensaries.
The department said the most recent full week of data available before recreational sales commenced was in October where the six compassion centers sold a total of $1 million worth of medical marijuana.
Rhode Island became the 19th state to legalize recreational cannabis sales in May, following in the footsteps of Massachusetts, where recreational sales began in late 2018, and Connecticut, which followed suit in summer 2021.
Rhode Island legalized the sale of recreational marijuana earlier this year and set Dec. 1 as the start date for adult-use sales. Before the legalization, Rhode Island only had three medical compassion centers: the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, Summit Medical Compassion Center and Greenleaf Compassion Care Center.
Five licensed medical marijuana compassion centers received hybrid retail licenses from the state: Aura of Rhode Island in Central Falls, Thomas C. Slater Center in Providence, Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket, Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth and RISE Warwick in Warwick.
Other businesses interested in entering the market will have to wait for the formation of a cannabis commission, which will set out the regulations on how about two dozen retail licenses will be issued.
The Rhode Island Cannabis Act, signed into law last May, gave Gov. Daniel J. McKee 40 days to appoint the three commissioners, following recommendations from the House speaker. The deadline has passed, and a spokesperson for McKee says the governor will not make appointments until the new year.
Why doesn’t the State release the sales from these dispensaries?
I’d like to know who owns: Aura of Rhode Island in Central Falls, Thomas C. Slater Center in Providence, Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket, Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth and RISE Warwick in Warwick.