Michael Marshall has been smoking cannabis, on and off, for 50 years. He’s 65 now, and he took his first toke at age 14.
Five years ago, before Connecticut legalized recreational cannabis sales, Marshall became a registered medical cannabis patient. Yes, he has dealt with some mental health issues but he freely admits that access to legal cannabis was not primarily about health care.
“It’s nice to be able to purchase legally. That was a big thing. And then, the fact that you know what you’re getting, for sure,” he said. “And then the variety.”
But more recently, Marshall has been heading out of state to get his legal cannabis. He’s retired now, so he doesn’t mind the hour-and-a-half drive to Rhode Island where he believes he can get more for the $700 he was planning to spend.
He said “the price is way up and the quality is way down” in Connecticut. “Right now, weed in Connecticut is going for around $400 an ounce which is ridiculous.”
There are some benefits to registering as a medical cannabis patient in Connecticut. There are legal potency limits on recreational cannabis, and a wider array of products.
At least, that used to be true, Marshall said: “Before the recreational program went into effect the medical program was great.”
Marshall is not alone, if state data is any indication. The number of medical cannabis patients has dropped 19 percent, from 48,896 to 39,695, between Jan. 31, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Sales of medical cannabis in Connecticut hit their high of $12,576,006.42 in March, 2023, three months after recreational sales began with the first nine retailers in the state. Since then, sales of medical cannabis have decreased to $7,656,831.38 in June, a drop of 40 percent.
“There are many factors that could contribute to fewer patients enrolled in the Medical Marijuana Program,” said Kaitlyn Krasselt, spokesperson for the state Department of Consumer Protection. “In addition to natural fluctuations as people move on and off the list for various reasons related to their medical conditions, the opening of the Adult-Use Cannabis Market may be one reason some patients are choosing not to go through the process of re-enrolling in the program, which would result in a decline of medical marijuana sales.”
Erin Gorman Kirk was hired in May as the state’s first cannabis ombudsperson, perhaps a unique role in the United States. Her mandate is to monitor the medical cannabis market and act as a liaison for patients.
She said she’s heard from many patients who have not been able to get the cannabis their doctors have prescribed.
“I have many patients calling me sobbing,” she said. “I had a guy call me screaming bloody murder the other day standing outside Blue Point Wellness, saying, ‘I have a neurological disorder and they don’t have what I want.’”
Gorman Kirk said there’s little incentive for cannabis cultivators and processors to support the medical cannabis market.
“How do you get them to continue to go push products into the patient market when they are not financially incentivized? Because there’s just not that many patients,” she said. “Do we give them breaks? Do we say you’ve got to go back to the compassionate care model and reduce your prices?”
Preservation plans
Fine Fettle owner Ben Zachs said with potency limits, the medical cannabis market makes little financial sense. “Connecticut had an unbelievably robust medical program in terms of product variety,” he said, which was a reason to remain a registered cannabis patient.
But recreational cannabis regulations prohibit the sale of high-potency concentrates, and edible products must be dosed and sold in a specific way.
“We used to have 20 milligram cookies, but now you can’t break it up into four pieces, because it’s not specifically dosed. So it went away. Making one gummy cost you five cents. Making one cookie might cost you $1 so you’re not going to make five milligram cookies,” he said. “It’s just way too expensive to operate. Any edible that’s not individually dosable went away. Bakery is expensive.”
Medical sales might be 30 percent of the total cannabis sales in Connecticut, and if concentrates make up 10 percent of those sales, the benefit in producing and selling those products isn’t worth the cost.
“Why are you going to invest so much time and effort and energy in 3 percent of the market?” Zachs said. “There’s definitely tons and tons fewer (stock units), and I think that that is a function of the legislature banning those products in adult (recreational) use and it not becoming commercially viable for the producers to make.”
Gorman Kirk agreed. “The prices are too high, and the amount of products has gotten to be just de minimis, and it’s unfortunate,” she said.
When Connecticut opened its recreational cannabis market, existing retailers and cultivators submitted medical preservation plans to the state, guaranteeing that they would support the medical cannabis market.
“The repercussions for failure to follow the medical preservation plan are suspension, revocation, refusal to grant or place conditions on the license,” Krasselt said. “We could also impose fines.”
But Gorman Kirk said that she’s seen, first-hand, cultivators ignore those plans. She toured one cultivator recently — one of the first four to open, though she declined to specify which one — and asked specifically if they were adhering to the law, “which required those original four to reinvest in the community and do things for patients.”
“The person there had no idea that that was a requirement, didn’t really understand the nature of my question, and said that they had a caregiver policy, but it didn’t seem to be robust,” she said. “Some of the personnel were new, so it’s not necessarily something they’ve been made aware of. But I found that troubling.”
A ‘natural evolution’
Dan Emmons was one of those original four cultivators, before he sold his company, Theraplant. He was the first medical cannabis cultivator to get product on shelves, all the way back in 2014.
When asked if it was assumed that the medical market would struggle if and when Connecticut allowed recreational sales, Emmons said no, though there has always been a struggle between meeting the needs of patients and producing a commercially viable product.
“There’s always been talk of recreational nationally, but that’s not why we got into it here. We didn’t get into it expecting that one day we would be recreational,” he said. “You’re juggling between making products that you believe that the public would want, and then putting it out there and seeing how the public takes it, and then trying to tailor your menus to things that are going to sell, as well as provide a service. It’s a tricky dance at first.”
Many states have seen declines in the medical cannabis market after recreational sales begin.
“It’s a fairly common trend to see medical sales decline with the introduction of adult use sales, due to varying factors such as foregoing medical card renewals,” said Grace Bondy, spokesperson for Verano, which cultivates and processes cannabis in Connecticut, and sells it under the Zen Leaf brand. “We’ve continued to prioritize our patients and medical products to ensure availability at our Zen Leaf dispensaries and our wholesale dispensary partners in the state.”
Though Connecticut recently removed the license fee, it requires a trip to the doctor, either virtual or in person, to become a registered medical cannabis patient, though medical cannabis sales are not subject to taxation.
“If they spend less than $600 a year on cannabis, they don’t make it up in taxes,” Zachs said. “There’s a natural evolution of, once things are legalized, you want to, you know, make your life easier, even if it costs you a little bit more money, or break even, and we see that in a lot of states.”
Though Zachs believes there is a natural shift away from medical, he said, “I think our program has gotten hit harder in medical than other states.”
“I think it’s been a more aggressive, quicker decline in Connecticut,” he said.
