Cannabis cultivators across the United States are facing significant challenges, and data from a study by Wells Fargo Securities, LLC and Cannabiz Media reveals the problems that licensed growers say are causing their biggest frustrations today.

Cannabis Cultivators’ Biggest Frustrations – How Do Yours Compare?

Results from the Inaugural Cannabis Cultivator Survey ranks the problems causing licensed growers the biggest frustrations from six key states deemed to be representative of the largest cannabis markets in the United States today: California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington.

The ranking of cultivators’ biggest frustrations across all respondents is as follows:

Declining Wholesale Price: 38%
License Bureaucracy / Burdensome Compliance Requirements: 25%
High Taxes: 12%
Black Market: 10%
Lack of Distribution: 8%
Other: 7%

How do your frustrations compare to your fellow cannabis cultivators’ problems?

It’s interesting to note that growers in different states ranked their biggest problems a bit differently.

In California, growers said their biggest problems as follows: declining wholesale prices (41%) followed by high taxes (21%), the black market (4%), lack of distribution (9%), and other (5%). Note that California regulators recently changed the tax rules to provide some relief for cannabis cultivators from the previously undue tax burden they faced. The change eliminates the California cultivation tax and caps the 15% excise tax for three years. Given this change, this problem ranking may look different if California growers are asked the question again.

In Colorado, the ranking looks quite different. Colorado growers ranked license bureaucracy as their biggest problem (54%) followed by declining wholesale prices (31%), and high taxes (15%). No other factor was listed as the biggest problem by any licensed Colorado growers who participated in the study.

Oklahoma growers cited the following as the problems causing their biggest frustrations: declining wholesale prices (36%), license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (31%), the black market (11%), other (9%), lack of distribution (8%), and high taxes (3%).

Licensed growers in Oregon were most likely to say their biggest problem is declining wholesale prices (40%) followed by the black market (28%), license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (16%), lack of distribution (9%), other (5%), and high taxes (2%).

In Washington, declining wholesale prices (41%) and high taxes (28%) were the biggest problems for the most growers followed by license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (17%), the black market (6%), and lack of distribution (9%). No other problems were cited as the biggest frustration by Washington growers.

Cannabis Cultivator Frustrations, Sentiment, and Exit Plans – What’s Next?

While these frustrations may seem insurmountable right now, there is hope on the horizon for licensed cannabis cultivators. Additional data from the Inaugural Cannabis Cultivator Survey sheds light on how licensed growers feel today, if they’re planning to exit the market, and what that means for cultivators who plan to stick it out.

This information is coming next week on the bio365 blog. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss anything!