The rapid ascent of Florida’s medical cannabis registry has given way to a markedly slower pace of growth, underscoring a maturing market and prompting questions about future momentum in the Sunshine State’s program.

According to data from the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU), the number of registered medical-marijuana patients in the state reached approximately 923,918 as of September 2025—up less than 5 percent compared to the prior year.

That marks a dramatic deceleration from earlier years, when patient counts were expanding at double-digit annual rates. For instance, growth in 2023 was around 11 percent, while by late 2025 the annual increase had dropped to approximately 4.3 percent.

What’s Behind the Slowing Growth?

Several factors appear to contribute to the reduction in patient growth momentum:

• Saturation of early-adopter demand: Florida’s program has been active for several years, allowing much of the “low-hanging fruit”—patients who were readily eligible and motivated—to register early. As the registry matures, new entrants may require more effort to reach.
• Stable eligibility list and clinician gatekeeping: Because the qualifying conditions and physician certification process remain largely unchanged, adding new patients may rely more on physician referrals and patient education rather than on an expansion of legal eligibility.
• Competition and alternative options: With more dispensaries (reported at 734 statewide in late 2025) and greater product variety, the market is shifting from expansion of patient numbers to intensification of patient usage (units sold) and product innovation.
• Emergent adult-use discussion: The failed ballot initiative in 2024 to legalize recreational cannabis in Florida may have dampened expectations of a surge from new consumers, instead shifting focus to retention and increased per-patient usage rather than growth of new patients.

Implications for Health, Business and Policy

For policymakers and health-care providers, the slowdown signals that efforts to engage new patients may need recalibration. Growth now may depend less on outreach to first-time users and more on deepening engagement with existing patients, optimizing treatment outcomes, and ensuring continuity of care.

From a business perspective, multi-state operators and dispensaries may see less room for growth via new patient acquisition, and more emphasis on increasing product variety, improving patient adherence, and developing value-add services (for example, telemedicine consultations, wellness programs). The reduction in growth rate also poses challenges for revenue forecasting and capital investment in Florida’s market.

Health-wise, the plateauing of patient registration could present both opportunities and concerns. On the positive side, it may indicate that those with the most acute need are already captured, allowing providers to focus on quality of care rather than rapid expansion. On the other hand, slower growth might signal lingering barriers for underserved populations (e.g., rural residents, older adults) that need targeted outreach.

Looking Ahead

While patient growth has slowed, the market is far from stagnant. Analysts report that unit sales (volume of product dispensed) remain robust, with smokable flower units up around 14.6 percent in the week ending October 2, 2025 compared to a year earlier—outpacing growth in patient counts.

This suggests a shift from “adding patients” to “deepening use”—existing patients buying more, trying different SKU’s, or switching to higher-value formats like edibles or concentrates. For the medical-cannabis program in Florida, that means benchmarking success not only by registration figures, but also by patient outcomes, access, product diversification and market sophistication.

As Florida continues to navigate its role as one of the nation’s largest medical-only cannabis markets, stakeholders will likely pivot their focus to optimizing the care delivery ecosystem, ensuring equity of access, and aligning business & health objectives in a slower-growing but increasingly mature environment.