{"id":20502,"date":"2021-09-30T11:19:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T15:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=20502"},"modified":"2021-09-30T11:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T15:19:04","slug":"hows-cannabiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/hows-cannabiz\/","title":{"rendered":"How&#8217;s Cannabiz?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"position: relative; padding-top: max(60%,326px); height: 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"position: absolute; border: none; width: 100%; height: 100%; left: 0; right: 0; top: 0; bottom: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23e6e6e6&amp;d=portland_monthly_magazine_october_2021&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=42&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" sandbox=\"allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation allow-downloads allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-modals allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Adult-use sales are booming, and home delivery is trending in medical-use sales as David Heidrich considers Maine by the numbers.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">From Staff &amp; Wire Reports<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">David Heidrich, 34, is one of us. He loves State Theatre events and recently took one in: \u201cIt was a blast. It had been a long time since I\u2019d heard live music.\u201d He doesn\u2019t like it when people call Instagram \u201cInsta.\u201d He\u2019s left Maine a couple of times but always comes back.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Now the USM grad and Augusta resident has a smoking-hot job. He\u2019s <strong>Director of Engagement and Community Outreach for the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy<\/strong>. It must be like knowing the weather before it happens. He\u2019s among the first to see the trends. The numbers come in, he releases them, and then he likely wonders what it all means. He recognizes his unique opportunity to be among those \u201cresponsible for launching an industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">THE ENORMOUS TASTING ROOM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">What fascinates is how quickly our cannabis use reflects our habits and state of mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAdult-use marijuana retailers sold more than $26.1 million throughout the summer months,\u201d he says. \u201cJune was $6.5M, July $9.4M, and August $10.2M. The August figure was the first time\u201d sales went above $10M. August\u2019s 133,969 transactions earned the state $1,022,175 in taxes. \u201cCertainly tourism is responsible for the robust sales, but then, Maine is a four-season destination. It\u2019s going to be interesting to see what happens this fall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">COLUMN A, COLUMN B<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Of course, there are two kinds of sales, quite different: \u201cthe Adult-Use Marijuana Program and the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Program. Home delivery is prohibited in the adult-use program.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">So home delivery is permitted in Medical Use? Marketing for that has taken a great leap forward since <i>Portland Monthly<\/i> covered cannabis trends last spring. (Like it says at the bottom of the Maine Marijuana Deliveries page at <a href=\"http:\/\/weedmaps.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Weedmaps.com<\/span><\/a>, \u201cWe use cookies to improve your experience.\u201d)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt doesn\u2019t say permitted. It\u2019s simply not prohibited for the Medical Use program,\u201d Heidrich says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">What might happen if the prohibition for adult-use deliveries were lifted?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhoof! That would have some<br \/>\nimpact.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">For one thing, the food-truck industry would have to find another parking spot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">THE SAVINGS\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">START HERE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMaine\u2019s adult-use industry has conducted nearly $50 million in gross sales since beginning in<br \/>\nOctober 2020,\u201d Heidrich says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">These numbers demonstrate that, as access improves, more Maine consumers are choosing the tested, tracked, and well-regulated market over a longstanding illicit market. We have a long way to go, but it is encouraging to see this type of progress. As more cultivators and manufacturers have come online, we have witnessed more product enter the supply chain, resulting in reduced prices. (October 2020: $16.90 average price per gram; August 2021: $12.88 average price per gram).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Retail licensing status as of September 15, 2021:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Active<\/strong><b>: <\/b>55<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Local Authorization<\/strong><b>: <\/b>16<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Conditional<\/strong><b>: <\/b>120<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Pending<\/strong><b>:<\/b> 49<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Total<\/strong><b>: <\/b>240\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s3\">Follow Heidrich\u2019s ever-changing data: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maine.gov\/dafs\/omp\/open-data\/adult-use#sales_data\"><span class=\"s4\">www.maine.gov\/dafs\/omp\/open-data\/adult-use#sales_data<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><em>See the full story\u00a0in the digital magazine above.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-20503\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"OCT21 cannabiz\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-200x100.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz-620x310.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/OCT21-cannabiz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adult-use sales are booming, and home delivery is trending in medical-use sales as David Heidrich considers Maine by the numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20502"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20554,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20502\/revisions\/20554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}