Florida’s cannabis market keeps expanding—even without adult-use legalization—and the ripple effects are reaching Bal Harbour. After voters rejected Amendment 3 in November 2024, Florida remained a medical-only state for now, but patient enrollment and dispensary activity have continued to climb. The state reported 923,228 active patients as of mid-2025, and 728 dispensing locations statewide, underscoring durable demand today.

Sales data still point to a large, resilient market. Industry tracker Headset estimated nearly $990 million in medical marijuana sales in the first seven months of 2025, suggesting Florida remains a valuable medical program in the U.S. While growth has moderated from pandemic-era highs, volumes remain significant across operators.

For Bal Harbour, the policy context is decisive. In September 2024, the village clarified its zoning code to expressly prohibit “marijuana retail centers” in every zoning district. That stance, authorized under Florida Statute 381.986, effectively keeps dispensaries out of the village limits while allowing residents to shop nearby or receive deliveries from licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers.

Economically, the ban means Bal Harbour forgoes any future local retail capture if adult-use returns to the ballot and passes. Florida’s Financial Impact Estimating Conference previously projected that non-medical cannabis would be subject to state and local sales tax and could generate at least $195.6 million annually statewide once mature—revenue that accrues where transactions occur. By contrast, under current law medical marijuana sales are exempt from sales tax, offering little direct fiscal upside.

Residents, however, see mixed quality-of-life tradeoffs. On the positive side, the prohibition aligns with Bal Harbour’s small-scale, luxury retail profile by avoiding cannabis storefront signage, parking demand, and late-hour activity. Delivery fulfillment—authorized statewide—reduces travel for qualified patients and limits cross-town shopping trips.

Potential downsides are more diffuse. Demand does not disappear; it shifts. Residents who qualify for medical cannabis spend in neighboring jurisdictions, sending taxable ancillary dollars—food, transport, services—elsewhere. If adult-use eventually succeeds at the state level, a continued local ban could widen that leakage, while enforcement and public-education costs would still be borne locally (for example, around rules on public consumption and impaired driving).

Regionally, Florida’s medical market remains concentrated among a handful of vertically integrated operators, with weekly dispensations measured in hundreds of millions of milligrams of THC and more than 135,000 ounces of smokable flower in a single August week. That scale ensures plentiful access just beyond the village line, reinforcing Bal Harbour’s de facto “nearby, not here” equilibrium.

Bottom line: Florida’s medical market is growing at a measured but meaningful pace, and Bal Harbour’s retail prohibition contains the most visible impacts within village borders while exporting much of the commerce—and any eventual adult-use tax benefit—to neighboring cities. Residents can expect stability in streetscape and brand mix, continued access via delivery, and a policy debate that will likely resurface if statewide legalization returns to voters.