Legal Cannabis is the Fastest Growing Industry in America

esearchers at the ArcView Group– a cannabis industry investment and
research firm– have concluded that the U.S. market for legal cannabis grew 74
percent in 2014. The fiscal numbers came in at $1.2 billion for the year of 2013 and rose to $2.7
billion by the end of 2014. This makes legal cannabis the fastest growing
industry in the United States.

The researchers surveyed hundreds of medical and recreational cannabis
vendors in legalized states, as well as auxiliary business retailers and
independent growers over the span of seven months between 2013 and 2014. The
group also collected data from state agencies, nonprofit organizations and
private corporations in the cannabis industry for a diverse analysis of the
marketplace.

“In the last year, the rise of the cannabis industry went from an
interesting cocktail conversation to being taken seriously as the fastest
growing industry in America,” Troy Dayton, CEO of The ArcView Group and
publisher of the third edition of the State of Legal Marijuana Markets, said in the executive summary of the report. “At this point, it’s
hard to imagine that any serious businessperson who is paying attention hasn’t
spent some time thinking about the possibilities in this market.”

With ArcView predicting that 14 more states will legalize recreational
cannabis and two more states legalizing medical cannabis, the industry is
expected to continue growing at a fast pace over the next five years.

The report predicts that legal cannabis will grow 32
percent in 2015– which places cannabis in “the top spot” when compared
with other fast-growing industries, according to Dayton.

California has the largest legal cannabis market in the
U.S., racking in $1.3 billion while Arizona had the fastest-growing major cannabis
market in 2014, expanding to $155 million, up more than $120 million from the
prior year alone. Medical cannabis is already legal in Arizona and California and
recreational legalization measures are likely to appear on the 2016 ballots in
both states.

Over 1.5 million shoppers purchased legal cannabis–
either medical or recreational – from a dispensary in 2014. Five states now claim
cannabis markets worth more than $100 million, and in Colorado and Washington,
customers bought $370 million worth of cannabis products last year. The report
forecasts that Oregon and Alaska are projected to add a combined $275 million
in retail cannabis sales within their first year of operation.

The report also says that by 2019, all of the state-legal
cannabis markets combined will make for a prospective total market worth nearly
$11 billion annually. If all states legalized cannabis, the market would be
worth $36.8 billion– $3 billion dollars more than the organic food industry.

“These are exciting times,” Dayton said in the
executive summary, “and new millionaires and possibly billionaires are
about to be made, while simultaneously society will become safer and
freer.”