To call the cannabis industry “emerging” would be an understatement at this point – according to research by industry expert GreenWave, legal marijuana sales in the United States reached $6.5 billion last year.
We collected data and analyzed the marijuana market trends separately for each state, because the official data is fragmented and as a whole inconsistent among markets, standardizing the information and helping people understand the actual market trends. We also did this to establish which the next six states to legalize weed next year are going to be.
In their report, “The State of the Emerging Cannabis Industry (Third Edition),” GreenWave offers a glance into the tax code, banking, the industry’s background and the size of the markets in each state among many other issues. It is expected that all states will have legalized weed in the next five years. There will be a great demand for any marijuana-related tools and growing equipment like LED Grow Lights HQ, bongs, seeds etc.
The (High) Probability of Nationwide Legalization
Experts maintain that every state will have a marijuana program in place by 2021, whether medical or fully legal. Each state will adopt its own legislation, so it won’t be on a federal level, assuming the federal government does not interfere. This is based on the view of all of the legislation in each separate state that has already been presented, regardless of whether the state has decriminalized weed or not.
As the momentum builds, it is likely that states that have long been opposed to marijuana will start changing their mind, so to speak, such as Arkansas, which recently passed the relevant legislation to this end. The bottom line is that states that have legalized weed have been enjoying impressive tax revenues and it would be out of sheer practicality that states which haven’t will want a piece of the pie too.
Experts believe 17 states will have legalized weed fully by next year, which is eight more than now. The next six states to legalize it will likely be Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont has given how close they are to Massachusetts, where weed is legal, as well as Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio. What is more, there will be 17 states with legal markets in 2018, but this isn’t to say that there won’t be any new medical markets. Some of the current medical markets (where weed is legal only for medical use) will transform into fully legal ones when recreational use is legalized.
The above-mentioned six states are only some of those participating in the overall $30 billion market in the next four years. Moreover, these states’ becoming fully legal does not mean they will all have implemented a recreational use market by 2018. For instance, Arizona will vote in 2018 for recreational use, but even if this is legalized, sales for that year will be only for medical use.
The Senselessness Of Duplicate Markets
As an American in the sense of residing in the USA, there is no way you wouldn’t benefit from full legalization, even if you are opposed to marijuana use. When we talk about industry theory, one of the most important aspects is that we are, in fact, facing a marijuana market metamorphosis, where we believe that the duplicate markets will combine and consolidate into one bigger market, because it is not feasible to operate two markets in any state, as this involves duplicate efforts. This has been observed in a number of states, among which Washington and Oregon.
At the present California is discussing this option as they make efforts to develop a regulatory framework. Legislative measures are being considered nationwide with the view to streamlining the legalization process. If you are looking for some growing equipment check the Best Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights.
