With revenues of $ 10.6 billion to $ 13 billion in 2019, sales of medical and legal marijuana for adults in the United States exceeded spending on sleep aids, hard seltzer, and combined toothpaste.
Total marijuana sales now exceed the annual revenue of the US National Basketball Association, and, by 2024, could exceed annual American spending on craft beer.
The data, published in the 2020 edition of the Marijuana Business Factbook, underscores the fact that the US cannabis industry is already a major economic force, even though it has not yet reached its full potential.
Strong increases in sales of new medical marijuana programs, as well as continued gains in recreational markets, are expected to fuel much of the industry’s growth in the coming years.
Newly launched MMJ markets, including Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, are booming and thus more than make up for the loss of medical sales in markets that have legalized sales of adult use, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, and Michigan. .
MMJ sales in Florida and Oklahoma are expected to exceed $ 1 billion each by 2021, placing them among the most valuable and fastest growing cannabis markets in the United States – medical or recreational.
On the adult use side, sales in mature markets remain strong, while revenues in newly legalized states like Illinois and Michigan are expected to grow rapidly.
California’s mass market continues to struggle with high taxes, local licensing restrictions, and an entrenched illicit market.
But conditions are expected to improve in the coming years as companies adapt to the state’s unique regulatory environment and more municipalities allow recreational companies to operate in their jurisdictions.
Further growth will occur as more states legalize cannabis for adults. Arizona and New Jersey may be next, with residents in both states willing to vote on recreational voting initiatives in November.
The coronavirus pandemic, however, has added a great deal of uncertainty to the equation.
Although cannabis sales have proven to be very resilient throughout the coronavirus pandemic, it remains to be seen how they will fare in the midst of a protracted economic downturn.
Eli McVey can be contacted at [email protected]
