Cannabis Industry Inhales for a Record-Breaking 4/20
With nearly half of Americans now living in states where weed is legal, holiday sales are going to be lit
It’s the Mardi Gras of marijuana, the most important day in the stoner calendar. And this April 20 (“420” is stoner code for, um, weed) is shaping up to be the most lucrative yet for the legal U.S. cannabis industry.
This year’s holiday comes at a strange historic juncture. Despite restrictions on in-person sales and, despite/because of living in the midst of a deadly pandemic, U.S. consumers have ramped up their (legal) cannabis consumption exponentially in the past year. Data analyzed by Leafly shows that sales of medical and adult-use marijuana increased by 71% over 2019. (If you’re wondering if that guy in your Zoom meeting was stoned, the answer is yes.)
Access to legal cannabis products has also been expanding dramatically. Thanks to a green wave of legalization in 2021 — with Virginia, New York, New Mexico, and New Jersey all joining the “adult use” bandwagon — over 40% of Americans live in states where any adult can legally possess and use cannabis. Not all of the 18 states where cannabis is legal have dispensaries set up yet. New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Virginia are all slow-walking their rollouts over…
