In addition to the need for additional growers, DMM found average retail prices to be prohibitive to patients whose treatment plan requires greater volumes of marijuana.
For example, a patient purchasing 1 ounce per month – half the maximum allowed – would pay nearly $6,000 out of pocket over the course of a year.
By comparison, based on recent prices, 1 ounce per month would cost an Oregon patient $2,820 and an Illinois patient $4,500.
To determine future levels of supply and demand, DMM assessed two patient-growth scenarios:
- Maintaining current growth rates – or status quo.
- Increasing growth rates over time by applying patient-driven recommendations from Gov. Phil Murphy’s so-called Executive Order No. 6.
The governor’s order directed the health department to review the state’s medical marijuana program and develop ways to expand patient access to MMJ.
Under the order’s conservative status quo scenario, by January 2022, New Jersey would have 127,000 patients – more than three times the 40,000 patients in the program as of January 2019 – requiring 438,000 square feet of cultivation space and 15-25 additional cultivators (depending on cultivation area).