Americans, Canadians Spend Billions on Legal Marijuana – in One Year

(Spring 2017) North Americans’ consumption of legal marijuana goods skyrocketed over 30% from 2015 to 2016; all told spending $7 billion on cannabis commodities. Specifically, U.S. and Canadian residents purchased over $5 billion in medicinal marijuana last year. This is a significant increase from 2015’s $4.16 billion. Meanwhile, sales of recreational marijuana rose from slightly less than $1 billion in 2015 to $1.7 billion in 2016. As more states in the U.S. give a nod to recreational marijuana, its sales are expected to escalate further.

A recent report estimates that by 2021 North America’s legal cannabis sales will climb to over $21 billion. This includes medical sales of $6.7 billion and $14.8 billion in recreational marijuana. Mexico is included in these numbers because the country’s officials are contemplating the legalization of medicinal marijuana.

The study also spotlighted Canada’s spearheading of its countrywide development of a legal, well-structured marijuana industry. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is focused on legalizing cannabis and anticipates introducing legislation before July of this year.

Although the legal market in North America is gaining a foothold and will continue to grow, right now it is still far outpaced by the black market’s success. In 2016, the illicit market reaped 87% of all marijuana sales on the continent.

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