The cannabis industry is changing at a speed that is much higher than what anyone anticipated. Due to the global cannabis legalization upshot, investors put in millions of dollars in this fast-growing industry. In 2018, the legal cannabis industry was valued at $10.4 billion in the US alone. Also, we saw over $10 billion invested in marijuana businesses in North America. Even new trends appeared, like weed tourism, which is also growing fast.
In order to better understand the level reached by the cannabis industry, CaliExtractions created an infographic that you can check out. As you can see, cannabis is now legal in 33 US states and it is expected that by 2025, sales will reach 24.07 billion. There are around as many people employed by the cannabis industry as librarians or kindergarten teachers. Given the growth of the industry, soon we will have more people in this industry than telemarketers.
It is incredibly hard to predict exactly what the future will be like but some statistics that show why so many investors now want to be involved in cannabusiness can be mentioned:
- By 2025 it is expected that global legal marijuana will grow into a market worth over 140 billion USD.
- Legal cannabis sales in the US reached $10.82 billion in 2018.
- The number of US citizens in favor of legalizing marijuana is 62%.
- More women have executive positions in the cannabis industry, 36% as opposed to the average of 15% in other industries.
- The revenue of one average cannabis dispensary business is $3 million per year, with operating costs of $1.92 million.
- Recreational marijuana use is expected to double medical marijuana use by 2022.
Cannabusiness Becoming A Political Influence
It is highly possible that legalized cannabis sales can eventually top cigarette sales in the US and by 2020, sales can overtake ammunition and firearms. This is really important because the firearms industry is highly influential in politics. As more and more states legalize marijuana, especially recreational use, the entire industry can end up as powerful in influencing laws as firearms and big pharma businesses.