SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – It’s been one month since people could begin buying recreational marijuana and dispensaries say business is not slowing down.

The first day of recreational sales took place on February 3. During that weekend, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported over $8.5 million in recreational sales.

“We expected an increase, but I’m not sure we expected this much,” Flora Farms President Mark Hendren said.

Flora Farms has dispensaries in Springfield, Ozark, Neosho, and Humansville. The company also has a cultivation facility in Humansville.

“Depending on where the location is has a little bit to do with how much volume we’ve seen increase,” Hendren said. “It’s a minimum of three times over medical and in the stores that are closer to the border line states. Our recreational customer now represents over half of our total business.”

Especially on a Friday, you’ll find customers at every register purchasing marijuana in Springfield.

“We’ll see a real boost of customers after 4:30 p.m. And we’ll stay up until 9:00 p.m. tonight waiting,” Hendren said.

Medical Marijuana patient Dustin Wood was surprised to see so many people at the dispensary in Springfield on Friday.

“[Before recreational] I think it was pretty limited,” Wood said. “When I’d come in and maybe just one or two people, sometimes I’d walk right on in. [Today] it was the busiest I’ve seen. I could see it really getting a lot busier. I’m sure they’re going to probably need to have more dispensaries without their area before long.”

To combat the demand, Flora Farms is increasing its space at the cultivation facility in Humansville.

“Flora farms built up a fairly substantial back stock of inventory at the cultivation center,” Hendren said. “But we’re eating through that little more quickly than we thought. So we’re already making preparations. In fact, I had a meeting with our construction team this morning to expand our cultivation facility by another probably 80,000 square feet in the next few weeks.”

Flora Farms also extended its hours at dispensaries to meet the demands of customers.