Pot in the Panhandle: Trulieve takes medical marijuana to Destin

Kim Rivers iis under the cloud of her husban's corruption trial. Image via Jacob Ogles.

Trulieve, which leads Florida’s burgeoning medical cannabis sector in market share and number of stores, will begin October with another expansion move.

On Tuesday, Trulieve will open in Destin. This will be the 36th of 49 dispensaries permitted the company.

The company sees its latest launch as coming full-circle, said CEO Kim Rivers.

“Trulieve originally started in Florida’s Panhandle, so we’re especially excited to open our Destin location and bringing patients in the area direct access to the medications they’ve come to rely on. Our mission is to ensure patients have access to safe, reliable products and we’re fulfilling that promise in Destin by opening the first dispensary in the area,” Rivers said.

Indeed, one challenge for Florida’s nearly 270,000 medical marijuana patients is access, with options often limited outside of population centers.

That lack of access can slow patient education. However, Rivers expects the Destin location to help demystify what can be a confusing process for dispensary newbies.

“We’re looking forward to educating patients on the process, from their first steps into medical cannabis to exploring new treatment options, and offering direct access for those who may not have had convenient access to a dispensary in the past,” Rivers asserted.

Trulieve continues to perform in the marketplace, and investment website The Motley Fool continues to tout the multistate marijuana company as a boffo buy.

Of most interest: the company’s “really intriguing … Florida opportunity.”

“Trulieve currently operates 33 [sic] medical cannabis dispensaries in Florida. It expects to bump up that total to 44 stores by the end of 2019. And Trulieve absolutely dominates in the state’s medical cannabis market with a market share of nearly 50 percent.  The No. 2 company in Florida claims a market share of less than 14 percent,” observed the Fool’s stock picker.

“If Trulieve can maintain its current market share, the company could be on track for annual sales of close to $800 million in the not-too-distant future. That’s exciting for a stock with a current market cap of less than $900 million,” the analysis continues.

However, patients aren’t worried as much about price/equity ratios as they are about value and efficacy.

To that end, Trulieve touts “Florida’s largest selection of THC and CBD products, available in a variety of delivery methods, including smokable cannabis, concentrates, tinctures, topical creams, vaporizers, and more.”