Sales of Legal Cannabis are Expected to Reach 23 Billion in Four Years

According to a new report on the legal marijuana market from ArcView Research and New Frontier, sales are set to reach nearly 23 Billion by 2020. While this isn’t necessarily surprising, it does show how much legal consumption is set to increase by in the coming years. In fact, adult legal cannabis sales saw a 232% increase in just this past year alone.

This trend is expected to continue as a handful of states have legalization on the ballot for 2016, including California which would be the largest state to legalize. Also, there are more states, such as Ohio, that have petitions circulating to propose that legalization for medical use is on the ballot in November. All in all, 2016 is going to be a decisive year for marijuana legalization, and if these efforts succeed then it will translate to major gains in the cannabis industry.

Another key factor in all of this is that support for legalization is at the highest it’s ever been before. According to a Gallup poll, about 30 percent more Americans aged 35 to 49 support legalization than they did 15 years ago. This isn’t the only demographic to have a change of heart either, all of the age groups surveyed have roughly doubled in their amount of support. Right now, 6% of states allow recreational use of cannabis, but according to the ArcView report, 24% is predicted to allow recreational marijuana in 2016. That’s a predicted quadruple increase in the amount of legal recreational states, so as I’ve stated before, 2016 is going to be a big year for legal marijuana.