Now it’s probably in the low 30s or less. I think that’s true for everybody in the industry as it shifted the overall business to the newer states into a more balanced thing. And you also got that unique dynamic in Oklahoma where Oklahoma at one point had nearly — just under 20,000 licenses in the US, Oklahoma had half of them at one point. But fortunately, Oklahoma’s regulatory folks have gotten a little more strict and they’re cutting that down. License are cut in half from what they were in Oklahoma, which is encouraging because you need a good balance of production and consumption. The newer states are seeming to learn from the mistakes of others, and they’re doing a much better job of regulating the number of dispensaries tied to the number grows, tied to the actual population and ultimate demand.
So people are learning, but it’s just been very, very slow and a lot more interruptions than it should be. And the lack of federal guidance and federal sanity, if you will, in this has really kind of cast a huge shadow over the whole category for the last three, four years.
Operator: Our next question is from Jesse Redmond with Water Tower Research.
Jesse Redmond: Good morning, guys. I had a question on the catalyst side, we’re looking at the multistate operators and just the plant-touching businesses, certainly the potential for , the E removal is the biggest thing on the horizon. Can you talk a little bit about how Schedule III could be helpful to you, although you weren’t a plant-touching operator? Do you see that freeing up budgets and potentially increasing CapEx? Or do you see that as not being a meaningful catalyst for your business?
William Toler: No. We think that can be a very important catalyst in terms of particularly durable orders, but also just a confidence and a sentiment around the whole category that it’s now time to lean in and invest again. I think you’ve got [Technical Difficulty] thing on the sideline. You’ve got MSOs staying on the sidelines, people holding capital back, interest rates have obviously been harder. So that’s — you can get that it’s hard to put on these businesses. And so everybody is in a holding pattern as you’re waiting for this big move from Schedule I to Schedule III. As you indicated, the biggest benefit there, of course, is that plant-touching legalize businesses don’t have tax burden they currently have today. And once that frees up for them and they can retain a lot of those — that cash flow for themselves, they’ll be able to lean back in to the category.
So we definitely see that as a benefit to us. Certainly, it’ll take a little time from when it turns to when people are actually placing orders, but we’ve seen a number of projects that have been delayed, delayed, delayed over the last year or two that are kind of ramping up and starting. So we’re hopeful that this catalyst is going to happen and/or people are going to get back in as supply and demand has become more imbalanced as I referenced a moment ago regarding Oklahoma. So all that steps speaks to, yeah, the rescheduling, the scheduling would be — benefit to the whole industry. And it also would, I think, give people a lot of confidence that now we’re going to get back to a more normalized category trajectory and normalized growth pattern.
Jesse Redmond: That’s helpful. Thanks. And on the state side, the two biggest markets that could flip rush this year are Florida and Pennsylvania. Can you talk a little bit about those states and if they were to move to adult use sales, how you would see federal spending increasing there?
William Toler: Yes, both are incredible opportunities. Florida is one that has been kind of on the docket for a while. And then in terms of people’s expectations, it looks like it is — the governor has said it’s going to be on the ballot here in November, which is fantastic. Pennsylvania, I think, is in a similar situation. Both of those population of over 20 million in Florida and around 10 million in Pennsylvania, you can see that these are very, very important catalysts for us, would drive their population number up probably closer to 60% or greater percent of category. So we do expect that to be a big part of the growth going forward.
John Lindeman: And Jesse, both of those states have been comping better for us than the overall population has.
Operator: Our next question is from Harold Weber with Aegis Capital Corp.
Harold Weber: Good morning, guys. How are you doing? One of my questions is in regard to the previous issues in regards to inventories, how’s that, the win? Is there any more benefit to see out of that? Is that imbalance presently? Are you satisfied with that?
