MORGANTOWN – West Virginia’s medical cannabis program continues to grow.
The legislation enabling the program passed in 2017, but nothing really got rolling until 2022. Morgantown’s first dispensary opened in November that year. Now there are eight in Monongalia County, and 2,162 patients with medical cannabis cards.
Here’s a look at some current figures for the state and the local area.
Statewide, patient applications started coming in to the Office of Medical Cannabis in 2021, with 4,860. That jumped to 13,986 in 2022 and 17,378 in 2023.
As of Aug. 30 this year, the OMC had received 49,073 patient applications and approved 34,003.
Mon’s 2,162 patients ranks it second behind Kanawha, with 3,950. Rounding out the top five are Cabell, 1,979; Berkeley, 1,823; Wood, 1,544. The OMC notes that these five have 33% of the state’s population but 38% of the cannabis patients.
Marion County ranks eighth with 1,180 patients. Preston has 498. Webster is 55th, with 65 patients.
Dispensaries have mushroomed, with 62 across the state. Mon had eight permitted dispensaries, Marion four and Preston one.
An additional 19 permits were not renewed in 2023, expiring at the end of January 2024, including three in Mon County. OMC said the permits were not renewed either because the companies chose not to or because OMC terminated them because they failed to make progress to become active dispensaries.
In addition to dispensaries, there are nine growers and nine processors – the closest grower/processor being Harvest Care Medical in Bridgeport – and 140 physicians registered to certify patients for cannabis cards. There are also 26 active telemedicine companies that allow patients to obtain a card without an in-person office visit.
Medical cannabis is not covered by any kind of private or public health insurance – still being federally illegal – but patients are willing to pay for the relief it provides. Total sales – retail and wholesale – rose from less than $500,000 in November 2021 to about $6.5 million in November 2023, according to OMC’s 2023 annual report.
OMC provides dollar information through The Transparency Project that provides medical cannabis data nationwide. Sales were $7.91 million this past March, $7.81 million in April, $7.97 million in May, $7.68 million in June, $8.12 million in July and $8.39 million in August.
Buds and flowers dominate sales by product type, at 65.8% of all sales. Vapes are second, at 19%.
Product prices fluctuate quite a bit. A vape unit cost $34.48 in November 2021, peaked at $42.69 in April 2022, fell steadily to $34.11 in February 2023, spiked again to $38 in March 2023, then fell again to $36.04 in October 2023.
Topicals were $33.08 per unit in October 2023. Buds and flowers started at $7.06 per unit in November 2021, peaked at $11.99 in March 2022 then fell graudally to $8.43 in October 2023.
Chronic pain remains the most prevalent condition for patients to turn to medical cannabis. At the end of 2023, there were 19,405 chronic pain patients, 53.1%. The remaining top five were PTSD, 11,818, 32.4%; neuropathies (nerve damage other than chronic pain), 2,256, 6/2%; cancer, 1,257, 3/4%; and epilepsy, 454, 1.2%.
And, finally, the 35-54 age group makes up the majority of medical cannabis patients, at 13,066, 43.8%. Next comes 28-34, 5,269, 17.6%; 55-64, 5,281, 17.7%; 65-plus, 4,473, 15%; and 18-25, 1,743, 5.8%. The under 17 group makes up just 0.1%, OMC doesn’t give a number.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
