Teresa Spencer
Words By Teresa Spencer
When you think of Florida, you might picture Mickey Mouse, the beach or Florida Man wrestling an alligator. What you should be picturing is nearly a million state-sanctioned stoners puffing away legally. That’s right, while the rest of the South plays moral panic ping-pong, Florida is out here blazing medical weed like it’s our civic duty.
Let’s dive into the numbers that indicate we live in one of the most surprising heavyweight cannabis states in the country.
Forget Cali or Colorado for a second. Florida’s medical marijuana program is a certified juggernaut. As of early 2025, the state has nearly 903,000 registered medical marijuana patients. That’s about 1 in every 25 Floridians, including grandmas, veterans, soccer moms and everyone in between.
In 2023 alone, Floridians legally torched over 7.3 million ounces of smokable cannabis. That’s nearly half a million pounds of flower circulating through dispensaries and into joints, bongs and (let’s be honest) apple pipes all over the state.
Despite the evolution of edibles and vapes, good old-fashioned bud still dominates the Florida scene. About 64% of patients prefer flower as their go-to method of consumption. Why? Because it’s classic, fast-acting. But gummies are on their heels. Over 57% of patients munch on infused chews, likely because they’re discreet, easy to dose and don’t make you smell like a reggae concert.
Beyond flower and edibles, patients in Florida are prescribed tinctures, topicals, vapes and concentrates. Each with their own loyal following. But no matter the form, it all adds up to a medical marijuana economy pushing billions in annual revenue and consumption numbers that rival the country’s recreational states.
Florida doctors write scripts like DJs dropping beats. No seriously, physicians certified millions of ounces in prescriptions last year with the average patient getting about 2.5 ounces per order, according to my research on the net. There are no shady street deals here, just clean, trackable, state-monitored sales from licensed dispensaries. And yes, Jacksonville is holding it down with some of the best-stocked dispensaries in the game.
Weed may not be “recreational” here yet, but if you peek behind the palm trees, you’ll find that we live in a state that’s already quietly consuming millions of ounces of legal weed every year. It’s the South’s best-kept secret, and it’s only getting louder.
So the next time someone tells you our lovely state is all flip-flops, fishing and football, remind them: It’s also one of the biggest medical marijuana markets in the country. Swampy? Maybe. Sleepy? Never. Stoned? Most definitely.
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