State Says Missouri’s Marijuana Market Is Competitive. But Who Owns It?
A study couldn’t determine ownership concentration among cannabis businesses
Missouri regulators say the state doesn’t need to issue more licenses to grow, manufacture or sell marijuana because the legal cannabis market is meeting consumer demand.
But the statewide study behind that conclusion couldn’t answer a key question: whether a small number of companies controls a substantial share of Missouri’s marijuana businesses.
The study, released last week, examined cannabis purchasing habits, monthly consumer spending and sales in both regulated and unregulated markets. New York-based Cannabis Public Policy Consulting LLC found no evidence that Missouri’s statewide or regional cannabis markets are overconcentrated based on how sales are distributed among licensed facilities.
The researchers could not determine how concentrated ownership was among cannabis businesses because they lacked usable data on who owns the licenses and whether multiple dispensaries operating under different licenses belong to the same company.
“…ownership-based analyses would provide a more comprehensive assessment of market structure by evaluating concentration across common ownership groups,” the report states.
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