Marijuana markets nationwide are growing. Some say that means legalization has worked, while others disagree. IBTimes.com reports on the numbers and concerns:
In news that will likely be celebrated by cannabis advocates and marijuana industry stakeholders alike, a new report concludes recreational marijuana sales skyrocketed from $351 million in 2014 to $998 million in 2015 — a 184 percent increase. The data come from the fourth edition of “The State of Legal Marijuana Markets,” a joint report from the research wing of the ArcView Group, a marijuana industry investment firm, and New Frontier, a cannabis analytics firm.
Thanks largely to the 2015 explosion in recreational marijuana sales, with 2-year-old adult-use industries in Colorado and Washington continuing to expand and a new recreational market launching in Oregon late last year, the new “State of Legal Marijuana Markets” report — which was the first time ArcView partnered with New Frontier on the endeavor — estimates the entire legal cannabis industry, which also includes medical marijuana programs in 23 states and Washington, D.C., is now worth $5.4 billion. That’s up from $4.6 billion in 2014. (The report’s market estimates are significantly larger than past editions — previously, the 2014 cannabis market was pegged at $2.7 billion, not $4.6 billion — because it now includes caregiver-patient transactions, not just dispensary sales, in its medical marijuana numbers.)
The report estimates the marijuana industry will grow from $6.7 billion in 2015 to $21.8 billion in 2020, with an average compound annual growth rate of 30 percent. By then, according to the report, recreational sales will entail 53 percent of the total market.
John Kagia, New Frontier’s director of industry analytics, is encouraged by such developments. “The explosive growth for the adult-use market in the test cases we have here suggest that consumers, when presented with a legal and well-regulated environment where they can purchase these products, will eschew the illicit market,” he said. Not only will the shift away from illegal cannabis markets curtail the costly and discriminatory impact of the country’s long war on marijuana, it will also provide marijuana consumers far more protections and control than they had in the black market, Kagia said. “The benefit of being able to purchase these products through a regulated market is that not only are there standard procedures that producers, manufacturers and retailers have to meet, there is also a lot more information presented to you with each product,” he added.
There are others who benefit from flourishing sales: investors and business owners. “It shows that the trajectory is strong in terms of profits, in terms of the ability to make a play at an early phase of a fast-growing industry,” said ArcView CEO Troy Dayton. “This is a generational opportunity. When you can catch one of these things at an early enough stage, it’s an incredible economic opportunity for creating jobs, for creating wealth, for shifting culture and being part of history.”
Read More from the Source: Recreational Marijuana Sales Are Up 184%. Is That A Good Thing?
Adilas420, of course, says “Yes” marijuana sales are a good thing. It is good for our economy, for our health and for the independence of the American people.
