A new report from Stifel, a Wall Street projection firm, says the global weed market will expand 25-fold in a decade, with the US contributing to half of the total sales.
Sorry prohibitionists: there's no holding back the growth of the legal cannabis industry. Despite concerns that the recent boom in cannabis investment might be a temporary bubble, and the fact that federal cannabis reform is moving slower than molasses, financial analysts still believe the industry will overcome these obstacles and expand exponentially.
Five years after Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, its lawmakers now are trying to rein in production, fearing the state’s big weed surplus will tempt some licensed businesses to sell their products out of state or on the illegal market.
Such diversions could invite a crackdown from the federal government and cast a pall over the legal pot industry. Last year, the U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon put the state on notice when he announced that curbing interstate trafficking was his top cannabis law enforcement priority.
With legal cannabis access expanding in the United States, it’s safe to assume that the pot you buy is on the up and up, right?
In most cases, yes, but too many continue to fail tests and go misrepresented on the market. This can range from flower being moldy to mislabeled. In other cases, flower can be contaminated. In recent years, tests of products resulted in failures for a slew of products. This includes a 2018 occurrence when nearly a fifth of California’s cannabis products failed testing.
Marijuana policy experts predicted that this year would be a "real game-changer" in terms of cannabis reform at both the state and federal level. But halfway through 2019, the movement has had less progress than hoped.
"The reality is that public policy change rarely works that way. Slow and steady tends to be how change like this happens," John Hudak, deputy director at the Brookings Center for Effective Public Management, told Newsweek.
Move over, 4/20, there’s a new cannabis “holiday” to be celebrated. July 10, also known as 7/10 has been fondly named “Dab Day” within the cannabis community. Spelling “OIL” when flipped upside-down, 7/10 is the day when cannabis concentrates and extracts are celebrated, and sales data is showing that cannabis consumers are eagerly participating in the celebration.
Green Market Report obtained data from both Flowhub and Headset demonstrating that consumers are happily opening their wallets on 7/10, making major dents in weekly and monthly sales. Here’s what we found out:
In case you haven't noticed, the legal cannabis industry is turning into a big-money business.
As recently as 2014, the global cannabis industry was just a seed that was beginning to find its roots. The duo of Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics notes that worldwide licensed-store sales (i.e., legal sales that don't include cannabinoid pharmaceutical sales and general store cannabidiol revenue) were "only" $3.4 billion in 2014.
Fueled in part by CBD product sales and Canada's recent legalization of marijuana, the world's cannabis market could notch $15 billion this year.
Industry insiders are forecasting that global cannabis sales could total $14.9 billion in 2019, up 36% from 2018, according to a new report released Thursday.
Steve White hasn’t applied for any alternative treatment center licenses in New Jersey. But through a series of acquisitions made by his Arizona-based company Harvest Health & Recreation, he’s now arguably one of the biggest players in the state’s cannabis industry.
But the industry also has a dark side, according to Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) CEO Brendan Kennedy. In a telephone interview with MarketWatch, Kennedy suggested that marijuana companies essentially lied to investors, and each other, about how much cannabis they could produce to support inflated market valuations.
Manndie Tingler kept her secret from her parents, certain they would disapprove. And while most Americans have come around, she knew her mom and dad would still consider it “a horrible thing.”
She eventually tired of hiding her affairs, so she began bringing up tidbits to “gauge their warmth.” Finally, Ms. Tingler told them: She was helping to build a marijuana start-up.
Her mother’s response was curt: “So, are you going to get arrested?”