A wave of important industry milestones and legislative changes are making 2024 one of the biggest years for the cannabis regulatory landscape. And even though we’re only three quarters through, so much has happened that we need to look back at the progress the industry has made — and also, at the upcoming changes cannabis retailers and businesses across the United States and Canada should prepare for.
Here are the biggest industry milestones and regulation changes that we’ve seen so far in 2024.
DEA Gets Closer to Rescheduling Marijuana
The biggest and most exciting change was the Department of Justice’s recent move to reschedule cannabis as a Schedule III drug. In July, the DEA concluded its comment period where it invited the general public to share their comments marijuana rescheduling proposal.
DEA recently announced that it received 42,000 comments. And, unsurprisingly, the general public overwhelmingly supports the rescheduling of cannabis. The DEA should now be in the process of publishing a final rule but as always, several things can slow down this process. The agency could, for instance, decide to have an administrative hearing which could extend the timeline significantly.
We covered the original announcement and its broad implications in greater detail with Cova CEO Gary Cohen — learn more about the impact of marijuana rescheduling for cannabis retailers.
Health Canada Proposes Major Rework to Cannabis Regulations
Canada has always been at the forefront of legislative changes and this year has come with changes too. In June of 2024, Health Canada proposed more than 30 changes across licensing, security measures as well as production, packaging, and reporting requirements.
Some of the more exciting changes include:
- Simplification of packaging requirements and allowing more flexibility in design (such as colored lids, transparent containers, and QR codes)
- Simplified record-keeping and overall fewer reporting requirements
- Relaxed security requirements include no longer needing a “secure” storage room, fewer security cameras, and reduced video recording requirements.
- Increased production capacity for micro-businesses, removal of the 10mg limit on edible cannabis product containers (allowing for multipacks), allowing new cannabis products with alcohol, among others.
All of these changes are proposed to promote a healthier and more competitive cannabis industry by reducing unnecessary regulatory oversight. However, despite the large number of changes, not all retailers are happy.
One regulatory change that many Canadian cannabis businesses were looking forward to was the reduction of tax relief. Canada’s federal excise tax. The excise tax has long been cited as one of the biggest growth hurdles but unfortunately for retailers — the tax stays unchanged.
420 Sales Disrupted by Dutchie POS Outage
4/20 is the annual high holiday that every cannabis retailer looks for. Unfortunately, for customers of the Dutchie POS, their 4/20 really did go up in smoke.
Several businesses reported widespread outages of their Dutchie POS during peak traffic on Saturday 4/20 — in some instances, for more than five hours — causing numerous customers to leave empty-handed, with losses reported as high as $80,000. The financial pain for many of these businesses will continue as they feel the lasting reputational damage of choosing an unreliable point of sale solution.
On the other hand, Cova customers enjoyed another year of outage-free 4/20 sales. In fact, this was the 7th year in a row that Cova customers had 100% uptime on 4/20 — a mighty achievement given the scale of operations. Read our full 4/20 report for detailed insights into how much money cannabis retailers made (and lost).
New York Exceeds 200M in Cannabis Sales
Despite a slow and rocky start, New York’s cannabis market is booming. Earlier this year, New York’s state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) projected total cannabis revenue to cross $200 million by June. Not only did the Empire State achieve it, it also beat that estimate — reaching a whopping $260 million in sales in just six months.
Estimates also predicted New York cannabis sales to cross $500 million by the end of 2024 but given how successful this year has been so far, total revenue could easily cross $700 million.
More notably, New York achieved this with just 113 cannabis retailers (at the time). The fact is, that New York’s cannabis stores are doing many things right, prompting New Yorkers to spend more on marijuana than any other state in the United States. Part of this success is undoubtedly due to having the right tech stack — as Cova customer Lenox Hill Cannabis Co. would have you know.
Also Read: How the Right Tech Stack Helps Lenox Hill Cannabis Co. Serve New York's Upper East Side
Another reason why New York will likely exceed revenue estimates is that new cannabis stores are continuously being approved. From June to the time of writing in August, New York has opened an additional 51 cannabis retail stores (bringing the total to 164).
And what is it like opening a cannabis store in one of the fastest-growing markets in the US?
It’s not easy but if you can innovate (and have the right partners), success is certainly in the cards. That’s one of the lessons we learned working with Trends, New York's largest legal dispensary. Learn more about the opening of their first-of-its-kind store in Long Island City, Queens.
The Biggest Cannabis Changes and Milestones in the US and Canada
There has been a lot happening this year and you may have missed some of the major cannabis changes and milestones across the United States and Canada. To get you up to speed, here is a quick summary of some of the cannabis highlights of 2024, so far.
Ohio
Ohio’s legal cannabis market officially launched on August 6 with 120 cannabis retail stores selling a total of $11.5 million of cannabis products in just the first five days.
Minnesota
On July 24, Minnesota opened applications for the preapproval process of the social equity cannabis licenses. Minnesota‘s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) also shared the first draft of proposed rules for the state’s adult-use marijuana industry and is accepting public feedback on the same.
British Columbia
On April 8, 2024, Surrey finally approved cannabis sales and opened applications for a 60-day window through which it would select the applicants for the first 12 stores.
Missouri
In April 2024, Missouri introduced a new bill to ban most Delta-8 products, including drinks and edibles. Lawmakers state this is to curb hemp businesses using federal legalization of hemp, as a loophole to produce intoxicating products, some containing THC.
Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, and California
In 2024, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois, and California all introduced some form of legislation, to decriminalize psychedelics and/or promote research into psychedelics therapy.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts heard a proposal to legalize psychedelic therapy in April 2024 which ultimately led to the Governor signing a bill to create a psychedelics working group for veterans therapy.
Similarly, Illinois lawmakers introduced the Psilocybin Therapy Legalization Bill in February 2024 to legalize supervised therapeutic use of psilocybin for adults to help treat a variety of health conditions.
On the West Coast, California began its efforts to legalize psychedelic services by introducing the Regulated Therapeutic Access to Psychedelics Act. Unfortunately, the bill faced a setback in its final Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, never getting to the floor.
And finally, Ypsilanti City became the fifth city in Michigan to pass a local resolution effectively decriminalizing Psychedelics.
New York
At the start of this year, New York wrapped up its first cannabis farmers market event, helping cannabis farmers sell their excess harvested crops with total sales reaching $4.8 million.
New Mexico
In New Mexico, legal cannabis sales reached a staggering $1 billion, just two years after the state started selling adult-use cannabis. This is only fitting as New Mexico also holds the record for the highest amount ever recorded in one single transaction – $2,000 worth of cannabis products purchased through the Cova dispensary POS system on last year’s 4/20.
Ontario
At the start of this year, Ontario announced that it was increasing the cap on the number of stores owned by a single company. However, not all retailers are happy about this as they fear large corporations may price them out of their localities.
The Best Time to Start a Cannabis Business
In less than a decade, cannabis went from a fringe market to a multi-billion dollar industry with sustained double-digit YoY growth rates. Cannabis is currently the most cultivated known drug on the planet and it shows — people’s attitudes, at home and abroad, have changed tremendously. Cannabis is being recognized for its benefits and legitimate use cases.
Cova works with hundreds of cannabis retailers across the United States and Canada and we see this push for legitimization firsthand. As a result, more retailers are adopting technology systems that bring them up to par with any other retail store — making cannabis purchases as easy as buying any other everyday item — walk in, walk out.
If you're starting (or expanding) your cannabis business, one the first things on your checklist should be choosing a reliable point-of-sale system, like Cova.
With over two decades of experience working with countless cannabis dispensary owners across North America, Cova dispensary POS systems offer secure, fast, and compliant payment processing for cannabis businesses.