Circle K Gas Stations Will Start Selling Cannabis Next Year
The deal marks a big step forward for the industry.
Cannabis is legal, either for medical or recreational purposes, in three-quarters of US states.
Cannabis will be available in select Circle K locations in Florida starting in 2023. Producer Green Thumb Industries signed a deal with Circle K, a convenience store chain with nearly 6,000 locations in 40 states, to sell licensed marijuana products at its Sunshine State stores, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The rollout will begin with 10 of Circle K's 600 locations in the state.
The last decade has seen a slow but steady rollout of legal cannabis, with Colorado and Washington being the first two states to legalize recreational cannabis in 2012. Today, 19 and 39 states have legalized the adult use of cannabis for recreational and medical purposes, respectively. (Currently, Florida is a medical-only state.)
Weed continues to gain mainstream support in the US, as President Joe Biden this month pardoned all convictions for federal simple marijuana possession and five states have put cannabis legalization initiatives on the November ballot.
But this being a highly scrutinized and newly regulated industry, cannabis sales have almost entirely been contained within the walls of dispensaries throughout the US. Thus, the Circle K deal marks a significant step forward for the industry, where cannabis will be sold alongside other age-restricted items like alcohol and tobacco.
Green Thumb CEO Ben Kovler told Bloomberg that the deal will "continue to normalize marijuana by integrating it with regular consumer products. This is a futuristic deal."