Legal Marijuana Is The Fastest Growing Industry In America, And It’s About To Get Bigger

Legal marijuana is America’s fastest growing industry, with the market nearly doubling in the past year and poised for even more growth.

Researchers from The ArcView Grow, an Oakland-based investment and research firm working exclusively with the cannibus industrty, found the market for legal cannabis was $1.5 billion in 2013, and then grew 74 percent in 2014 to $2.7 billion.

“In the last year, the rise of the cannabis industry went from an interesting cocktail conversation to being taken seriously as the fastest growing industry in America,” Troy Dayton, CEO of The ArcView Group and publisher of the third edition of the State of Legal Marijuana Markets, said in the report. “At this point, it’s hard to imagine that any serious businessperson who is paying attention hasn’t spent some time thinking about the possibilities in this market.”

There appears to be plenty of room for the legal marijuana industry to grow as well. More and more states are moving toward legalization, including a growing number for recreational uses. President Obama even predicted that more states would be moving in that direction, and said he doesn’t have much intention to stop states from legalizing it.

“The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that classify marijuana as an illegal substance, but we’re not going to spend a lot of resources trying to turn back decisions that have been made at the state level on this issue,” Obama said.

Obama appears to be lining up with national support for legalizing marijuana. Polls have shown an increasing number of Americans support legalization, moving from 12 percent in 1969 to 34 percent in 2003, and 51 percent in the latest poll from Gallup.

There are already four states that allow retail marijuana – Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon – and the report predicted that a number of others will be joining within the next four to five years. The report added that by 2019, the total market for legal marijuana across all states will reach $11 billion.

[Image via AP]