How Many Dispensaries Are in Each State? (2026 Count)

Our directory counts 11,258 licensed dispensary storefronts across 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, as of November 3, 2026. California has the most stores (1,301), Oklahoma is a close second (1,226) with about a tenth of California’s population, and Montana has the most per person at 46.6 stores per 100,000 residents. Across all the places we cover, that works out to 4.2 stores per 100,000 people.

Every figure below comes from state regulators’ license lists, matched to one storefront per address and divided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 population estimates. It is the same data behind our dispensary directory, so each number links to the stores it counts. This edition adds 15 medical-only markets that joined the directory after our October 30, 2026 count, including Puerto Rico, Mississippi and West Virginia, and they bring 776 more stores. States we have not added yet, such as New Mexico and Alaska, are not in these totals, so the full U.S. count is higher.

Dispensaries by state: the full 2026 table

Sorted by store count. “Adult-use and medical” means adults 21+ can buy without a medical card; “medical only” means buyers need a patient registration. Per-capita figures use each state’s Census Vintage 2025 estimate, and the same Census series for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Rank	State or territory	Dispensaries	Market	Population (July 1, 2025)	Stores per 100,000 residents
1	California	1,301	Adult-use and medical	39,355,309	3.3
2	Oklahoma	1,226	Medical only	4,123,288	29.7
3	Michigan	853	Adult-use and medical	10,127,884	8.4
4	Florida	784	Medical only	23,462,518	3.3
5	Oregon	752	Adult-use and medical	4,273,586	17.6
6	New York	723	Adult-use and medical	20,002,427	3.6
7	Colorado	690	Adult-use and medical	6,012,561	11.5
8	Montana	533	Adult-use and medical	1,144,694	46.6
9	Maine	514	Adult-use and medical	1,414,874	36.3
10	Washington	488	Adult-use and medical	8,001,020	6.1
11	Massachusetts	416	Adult-use and medical	7,154,084	5.8
12	New Jersey	327	Adult-use and medical	9,548,215	3.4
13	Illinois	289	Adult-use and medical	12,719,141	2.3
14	Puerto Rico	269	Medical only	3,184,835	8.4
15	Minnesota	245	Adult-use and medical	5,830,405	4.2
16	Ohio	232	Adult-use and medical	11,900,510	1.9
17	Missouri	227	Adult-use and medical	6,270,541	3.6
18	Pennsylvania	197	Medical only	13,059,432	1.5
19	Mississippi	190	Medical only	2,954,160	6.4
20	Arizona	172	Adult-use and medical	7,623,818	2.3
21	Maryland	122	Adult-use and medical	6,265,347	1.9
22	Vermont	111	Adult-use and medical	644,663	17.2
23	Nevada	104	Adult-use and medical	3,282,188	3.2
24	Washington, D.C.	77	Medical only (adults 21+ can self-certify)	693,645	11.1
25	Connecticut	76	Adult-use and medical	3,688,496	2.1
26	West Virginia	65	Medical only	1,766,147	3.7
27	South Dakota	54	Medical only	935,094	5.8
28	Arkansas	36	Medical only	3,114,791	1.2
29	Louisiana	29	Medical only	4,618,189	0.6
30	Hawaii	25	Medical only	1,432,820	1.7
31	Kentucky	25	Medical only	4,606,864	0.5
32	Virginia	24	Medical only	8,880,107	0.3
33	Georgia	21	Medical only	11,302,748	0.2
34	Utah	15	Medical only	3,538,904	0.4
35	Delaware	14	Adult-use and medical	1,059,952	1.3
36	Rhode Island	9	Adult-use and medical	1,114,521	0.8
37	North Dakota	8	Medical only	799,358	1.0
38	New Hampshire	7	Medical only	1,415,342	0.5
39	Iowa	5	Medical only	3,238,387	0.2
40	Alabama	3	Medical only	5,193,088	0.1
	Total (38 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico)	11,258		265,753,953	4.2

The 19 medical-only markets in the table account for 3,060 stores, or 27% of the total. Oklahoma alone is 40% of that, followed by Florida (784) and Puerto Rico (269).

Most dispensaries per person

Montana, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon and Vermont have the most dispensaries per resident. None of the five is a large state. What they share is a modest population and licensing rules that, at least for a time, let a large number of storefronts open. Here is how each got there.

Rank	State	Stores per 100,000	Stores	Population
1	Montana	46.6	533	1,144,694
2	Maine	36.3	514	1,414,874
3	Oklahoma	29.7	1,226	4,123,288
4	Oregon	17.6	752	4,273,586
5	Vermont	17.2	111	644,663

1. Montana: 46.6 per 100,000

Montana has 533 storefronts for about 1.14 million people, roughly 11 times the average of the places we cover. Of those, 525 sell adult-use cannabis. The state has frozen the number of licensed locations: under Senate Bill 27 (2025), the Montana Department of Revenue says the moratorium on new marijuana licenses runs until June 30, 2027, and an existing premises may move but no additional premises are allowed (“Freeze the Footprint”). The stores cluster in a few cities: Billings, Bozeman and Missoula hold 188 of them, 35% of the state. Local governments can also hold elections to opt in or out of adult-use businesses. See Montana marijuana laws.

2. Maine: 36.3 per 100,000

Maine counts three kinds of storefront, all licensed by the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy: 184 adult-use stores, 241 medical caregiver retail stores and 89 registered medical dispensaries. Caregiver retail stores are a Maine feature: registered caregivers can sell to patients from a shop, which is why medical outlets (330) outnumber adult-use stores here. Towns must opt in before new adult-use stores or caregiver retail stores can open, so stores sit in the communities that said yes. See Maine marijuana laws.

3. Oklahoma: 29.7 per 100,000

Oklahoma is the only medical-only state in the top five. State Question 788, approved by voters in 2018, has no list of qualifying conditions and did not cap dispensary licenses. The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority reports licensed dispensaries peaked at 2,893 on March 1, 2023 and stood at 1,259 on October 1, 2026, a 56% drop. State law now bars new dispensary licenses from August 1, 2026 to August 1, 2028. Our count (1,226) is a little lower than OMMA’s license total: we list storefronts, and an active license does not always mean an open shop. Oklahoma City (238) and Tulsa (135) together have 373. See Oklahoma marijuana laws.

4. Oregon: 17.6 per 100,000

Oregon’s 2014 voter law did not cap retail licenses, and stores multiplied until the state paused new applications. A 2024 law, House Bill 4121, now ties the number of licenses the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission can issue to population thresholds. Cities and counties may prohibit some or all license types, and OLCC maps where they have. Portland alone has 209 stores, 28% of the state. See Oregon marijuana laws.

5. Vermont: 17.2 per 100,000

Vermont is the smallest state in the top five, with 644,663 residents and 111 stores, all adult-use. Retail stores can open only in towns whose voters opt in by Australian ballot, according to the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, so the count reflects how many towns have said yes. See Vermont marijuana laws.

Just outside the top five: Colorado (11.5), Washington, D.C. (11.1) and Puerto Rico (8.4). The lowest rate in our directory is Alabama, with 3 stores, 0.1 per 100,000; it also has the fewest stores of any jurisdiction we cover.

Cities with the most dispensaries

Oklahoma City has more dispensaries than any other city in our directory, with 238, ahead of Portland, Oregon (209). Oklahoma places 4 cities in the top 25 and Montana places 3. San Juan, Puerto Rico, the only city from this edition’s new markets to make the list, ties Eugene, Oregon, for 15th with 51 stores. New Buffalo, Michigan, and Edmond, Oklahoma, tie for 25th with 38 each, so the table lists 26 cities. Counts follow the postal city on each license, so in New York City, Manhattan addresses (“New York”) and Brooklyn are listed separately; Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island stores appear under their own postal names.

Rank	City	Dispensaries
1	Oklahoma City, OK	238
2	Portland, OR	209
3	Denver, CO	180
4	Los Angeles, CA	154
5	Tulsa, OK	135
6	New York, NY (Manhattan addresses)	100
7	Brooklyn, NY	89
8	Colorado Springs, CO	86
9	Washington, DC	77
10	Billings, MT	70
11	San Francisco, CA	68
11	Bozeman, MT	68
13	Detroit, MI	58
13	Las Vegas, NV	58
15	Eugene, OR	51
15	San Juan, PR	51
17	Missoula, MT	50
17	Seattle, WA	50
19	Phoenix, AZ	44
19	Salem, OR	44
21	Orlando, FL	43
22	Norman, OK	41
23	Chicago, IL	40
23	Portland, ME	40
25	New Buffalo, MI	38
25	Edmond, OK	38

Per person: the top 10 cities

Measured against population, Billings leads the ten biggest store counts, and Los Angeles, fourth by count, and Brooklyn have the fewest stores per resident of the ten. One caution on Billings: the city has banned adult-use sales inside its limits since voters rejected them in 2021, so many stores with a Billings mailing address sit just outside city limits, in places like Lockwood, and the per-person figure overstates how many are inside the city itself. City counts follow the address on each license, not city boundaries. Populations are the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 city estimates; for Manhattan and Brooklyn we use the county estimates for New York County and Kings County.

City	Dispensaries	Population (July 1, 2025)	Stores per 100,000
Billings, MT	70	121,239	57.7
Oklahoma City, OK	238	719,849	33.1
Portland, OR	209	635,109	32.9
Tulsa, OK	135	416,209	32.4
Denver, CO	180	740,613	24.3
Colorado Springs, CO	86	494,743	17.4
Washington, DC	77	693,645	11.1
Manhattan (New York County)	100	1,664,862	6.0
Los Angeles, CA	154	3,869,089	4.0
Brooklyn (Kings County)	89	2,653,963	3.4

Why the numbers differ so much

Three rules explain most of the gap: whether a state caps licenses, whether it sells to adults or only to patients, and whether cities and towns can say no. Population matters less than you might expect: Oklahoma has 1,226 stores for 4.1 million people, while California has 1,301 for 39.4 million.

License caps versus open licensing

States that cap licenses end up with fewer stores per person. Ohio’s Senate Bill 56, in effect since March 20, 2026, caps active dispensaries at 400 and bars a new store within one mile of another, according to the state’s legislative analysis; the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control licenses them. Ohio has 1.9 stores per 100,000. Arizona limits adult-use establishment licenses to one for every ten registered pharmacies, and has 2.3. Oklahoma and Oregon, which opened licensing with no cap, sit near the top of the per-capita table. See Ohio marijuana laws and Arizona marijuana laws.

Medical-only markets

A medical-only market can still be large. Florida, where only registered patients can buy, has 784 storefronts run by vertically licensed treatment centers; counties and cities there may ban dispensing facilities but, if they allow them, cannot cap the number (Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use). Pennsylvania (197) and Washington, D.C. (77) also sell to patients only, though D.C. lets adults 21+ self-certify for a medical registration through the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration. See Florida marijuana laws, Pennsylvania marijuana laws and Washington, D.C. marijuana laws.

Most medical-only markets are small, though: 14 of the 19 have fewer than 100 stores. Nine of the ten lowest per-capita rates in the table belong to medical-only markets, from North Dakota (1.0) down to Alabama (0.1); Rhode Island (0.8) is the one adult-use state among them. Puerto Rico is the exception: its 269 medical stores work out to 8.4 per 100,000, level with Michigan (8.4) and higher than every other adult-use state except Montana, Maine, Oregon, Vermont and Colorado. Mississippi is next among the markets added in this edition, with 190 stores (6.4 per 100,000). See Puerto Rico marijuana laws and Mississippi marijuana laws.

Local opt-out

California has the most stores in the country but only 3.3 per 100,000, below the 4.2 average for the places we cover. The reason is local control: as of February 2026 the Department of Cannabis Control reports that 302 of California’s 540 cities and counties (56%) allow no retail cannabis business. Maine and Vermont work the other way round, with towns choosing to opt in, and the result is the same: stores bunch up where they are allowed. See California marijuana laws.

How we counted

We built this count from each state regulator’s list of licensed retailers. The sources are: Alabama, Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC); Arizona, Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS); Arkansas, Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission; California, California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC); Colorado, Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED); Connecticut, Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP); Delaware, Delaware Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC); Florida, Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU); Georgia, Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission; Hawaii, Hawaii Department of Health; Illinois, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR); Iowa, Iowa Department of Health and Human Services; Kentucky, Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis; Louisiana, Louisiana Department of Health; Maine, Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP); Maryland, Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA); Massachusetts, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC); Michigan, Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA); Minnesota, Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management (OCM); Mississippi, Mississippi Department of Revenue (MDOR); Missouri, Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation (DCR); Montana, Montana Cannabis Control Division; Nevada, Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB); New Hampshire, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services; New Jersey, New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC); New York, New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM); North Dakota, North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services; Ohio, Ohio Division of Cannabis Control; Oklahoma, Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA); Oregon, Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC); Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Health; Puerto Rico, Medicinal Cannabis Regulatory Board (JRCM); Rhode Island, Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission; South Dakota, South Dakota Department of Health; Utah, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food; Vermont, Vermont Cannabis Control Board (CCB); Virginia, Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA); Washington, Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB); Washington, D.C., D.C. Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA); West Virginia, West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis.

• Dates. Most license lists were pulled between October 20 and October 30, 2026; the lists for the 15 markets added in this edition were imported by November 2, 2026; the Washington and Oregon lists come from an earlier 2026 import from the LCB and OLCC. The counts on this page were read from our live state and city directory pages on November 3, 2026.
• One storefront per address. Where a state issues separate adult-use and medical licenses for the same shop, we count it once. Colorado shows why this matters: the Marijuana Enforcement Division counted 644 retail and 268 medical store licenses on October 1, 2026, but many share an address, so we list 690 storefronts.
• Excluded. Delivery-only businesses, cultivators, processors, manufacturers, testing labs and other licenses that do not sell to the public from a storefront. Stores we confirmed as permanently closed and duplicate entries were removed.
• Population. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 1, 2025): state and city figures from the SUB-EST2025 file (City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2025), Puerto Rico from State Population Totals: 2020-2025, Manhattan and Brooklyn from County Population Totals: 2020-2025.
• What this is not. These are counts of licensed, listed storefronts, not a door-by-door check that every store is open today. A license can be active while a shop is between locations or not yet open. Read how we verify listings for the details.

Use this data

Reporters, researchers and bloggers are welcome to cite these figures and to republish the state table with attribution. Please credit The Weed Street Journal and link to this page. Copy and paste this line:

<p>Source: <a href="https://theweedstreetjournal.com/dispensary-count-by-state-2026/">The Weed Street Journal dispensary count, November 2026</a></p>

We update the count as states publish new license lists. If you spot a store that has closed or is missing, tell us and we will check it against the regulator’s list.

Dispensary Count FAQ

General information, not legal advice. Store counts are of licensed, listed storefronts as of November 3, 2026; check a store’s listing before you visit.