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U.S.: Legal Marijuana Industry Could Be Bigger Than NFL By 2020

Submitted by steveelliott on Thu, 10/30/2014 - 00:57 2014 arcview AVT California cannabusiness corona Legalization marijuana industry national football league NFL Recreational retailing shannon illingworth United States Washington Post
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A new report projects that legal marijuana could be an industry with revenues of $35 billion by 2020 if cannabis is legalized at the federal level. Greenwave Advisors, which authored the report, notes that this is a floor representing revenues in the first year of nationwide legalization.
That figure -- $35 billion -- represents more annual revenue than the NFL (currently $10 billion), and is roughly equal to current revenues from the newspaper publishing industry ($38 billion) and the candy/confectionary industry ($34 billion), reports Christopher Ingraham at .
Greenwave arrived at its estimates by looking at existing and likely marijuana markets, medical and recreational, in states that already have legalized them, as well as in states that appear likely to open such markets by 2020. The research and analysis company estimates 12 states plus D.C. will have legalized recreational cannabis by 2020, reports Matt Ferner at The Huffington Post, with medical marijuana in 37 states.
Currently 23 states have legalized medical marijuana, and two (Colorado and Washington) have legalized cannabis for recreational use. Even without full federal legalization, Greenwave estimates legal marijuana revenues of $21 billion by 2020.
In its $21 billion 2020 model, Greenwave predicts 12 additional states plus D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.
"Considering the legal marijuana industry generated roughly $1.53 billion in revenues in 2013, according to industry research group Arcview Market Research, it's reasonable to assume there's a lot of growth potential between now and then," The Washington Post reported.
One of the keys to achieving growth in the marijuana industry will be in automation and compliance, according to Shannon Illingworth, founder and chairman of AVT, Inc., which specializes in automated retailing systems, storage systems, and vending machines.
"We build systems that add security and transparency to the dispensing process, by securing the cannabis in military-grade storage systems, and creating an unalterable digital trail of every purchase," Illingworth said. "This provides government regulators and tax agencies with a verifiable stream of accurate information, which not only completely removes any ambiguity, but also protects the dispensaries by keeping them in complete compliance at all times."
"We are in the best position to profit from the rapidly growing marijuana industry," Illingworth said. "We are not involved in any of the riskier sectors of the industry such as growing or dispensing, but can participate in the market growth by providing automated systems through our clients.
"Every time another state or city allows legal cannabis sales, we increase our base of potential sites for our state-of-the-art systems," Illingworth said.
While the Justice Department has, under the Obama Administration, taken a hands-off approach to legalization in Washington and Colorado, that could change, depending upon who wins the White House in 2016. The federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, legally considered equal to heroin or LSD (cocaine and methamphetamine, as Schedule II substances, are officially considered less dangerous than marijuana by the government).
- See more at: http://hemp.org/news/node/4238#sthash.2rmdsgxO.dpuf