This week, two marijuana analysis and investment firms released a report noting that the industry is booming with the legal sales of cannabis growing to $5.4 billion in 2015, up from $4.6 billion in 2014,
The New York Times reports.
With the two firms — The ArcView Group, based in San Francisco and New Frontier, based in Washington — projecting that the demand for marijuana will remain strong in 2016 with a forecast of $6.7 billion in legal sales, the Times notes that "analysts are weighing the stock market benefits of new businesses as cannabis goes corporate."
"Funds are considering the ethics of investing in marijuana. Parents are even debating whether to allow their children to buy the stocks," the Times reports.
And while the business of producing and selling marijuana still has a "stigma" around it with the products known to come in plastic baggies and grown in hidden locations, new lucrative legal side businesses, like climate systems for growers and marijuana bags have stemmed from the recent legalization.
Currently, 23 states already permit medical cannabis use, and four others — Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania — are positioned to advance medical laws, the report said.
It added that by 2020, legal market sales are forecasted to be $21.8 billion.
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