A Pasture for Future Unicorns? US Cannabis Industry to Reach $50 Billion by 2026
Brightfield Group, a US-based company that provides reports on CBD and cannabis industry, forecasts that the growth of the sector will not slow down in the coming years and will reach a whopping 50 billion dollars by 2026.
So far, the growth has been fueled by legalization efforts in individual states across the country, but the report takes into account a more than real possibility that decades-long prohibition of cannabis will soon be repealed on the federal level.
A Playground For Multi-Billion-Dollar Corporations
The two bills that the members of US Congress currently consider seek to deschedule cannabis, effectively removing it from the list of banned substances. Among other things, this would mean the instant ‘opening of borders’ between the states that already have a working medical or recreational marijuana program in place.
This means trouble for mom-and-pop shops and other small cannabis-related businesses that have proliferated in many of the ‘green’ states. With no federal barriers in the way of nationwide companies, smaller enterprises will find it very hard to compete with industry leaders.
A recent acquisition that created the world’s largest cannabis corporations is clear evidence of the coming new era. Likewise, the efforts of cannabis advocates to give minorities a chance to see some revenues from the new sector after the decades-long war on drugs—the war that has devastated entire communities—may not survive in the future business environment. And initiatives like hiring Black CEOs to head marihuana corporations could hardly reverse the trend.
Be it as it may, the federal legalization of cannabis seems inevitable. It has overgrown the issue of civil rights. It’s all about revenues and taxes now, and corporate America increasingly lobbies to end the prohibition.
East Coast to be the Main Driving Force of Growth
Even if the US fails to make cannabis legal nationwide, the continuing landslide of reform on the state level will be enough to propel the future growth of the cannabis sector. And it’s the Eastern states that currently have the highest number of initiatives to legalize the substance. The East Coast also has many big cities that will turn into huge cannabis markets once the substance gets legalized.
Elsewhere in the world, decision-makers watch closely the developments in North America. Legal marijuana sales have already reached 21 billion dollars worldwide. Most of this revenue is still generated in the United States and Canada, but cannabis advocates are pushing for reform in the UK as well.
Unlike Vegas, what happens in the US doesn’t stay in the US, and the wave of legalization is likely to spread across the pond.
