According to Fortune, retail cannabis sales will top $33.5 billion in 2023, outselling chocolate, eggs, and craft beer. Moreover, legal weed is one of the fastest-growing industries, with a $4 billion increase in sales from 2022. And by 2028, recreational and medical marijuana sales could top $57 billion.
The retail cannabis market is growing insanely fast.
Fortune reports that in 2022 legal marijuana added $90 billion to the American economy. And in 2023, experts expect that number to grow to just under $101 billion. By 2028, retail cannabis could inject as much as $170 billion into the domestic market. For reference, the market cap of the global chocolate industry in 2021 sat around $113 billion.
Additionally, edible goods, vapes, and other forms of the green stuff have become the most popular way to partake. Traditional marijuana flower buds only accounted for about 40% of all retail cannabis sales in the United States.
Marijuana may be a depressant, but it’s an economic stimulant.
In 2018, New York City estimated marijuana tax revenue could “conservatively” generate as much as $1.3 billion annually, eventually. Marijuana Moment reports New York State stands to collect $56 million in the fiscal year 2023 from licensing fees alone.
Additionally, since 2018, legal cannabis sales have generated $4.6 billion in tax revenue in California. $221.6 million of weed tax revenue in CA came in Q4 2022 alone. And in Q3, legal weed generated over a quarter billion dollars in tax revenue.
Americans overwhelmingly support legalizing marijuana.
According to Pew Research, 88% of Americans agree marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use. In comparison, only about half of all adults in the United States support stricter gun control laws. Furthermore, only one in ten Americans say they’re against legalizing cannabis. Though a clear disparity exists between opposite sides of the political aisle, 37% of Republican-leaning individuals support recreational marijuana.
