According to new data by New Frontier and Arcview Market Research, if all nine states pass their respective marijuana ballot initiatives in November it could be worth $7.8 billion to the US economy by 2020. California’s recreational market would represent approximately $1 billion of that figure.
The report estimates that the additional market sales from the nine states would reach $2.7 billion in 2018, and the market would see a compound annual growth rate of 29 percent.
“The cannabis industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy and continues to astonish those in and out of the space,” Giadha DeCarcer, founder and CEO of New Frontier, said in a press release. “There are a record number of cannabis legalization initiatives on the ballot this November, which could account for as much as 38 percent of the total market by 2020. These markets will have an enormous impact on the cannabis industry.”
In their Mid-Year Update of the 4th Edition of the State of Legal Marijuana Markets, the analysists also revised their projections for the worth of the industry as a whole by 2020. In March, the group estimated the market’s worth to be $22.8 billion by 2020; in the updated report they lower that projection to $20.6 billion due to “increased market data, operational challenges and implementation delays in new markets, and changes to market regulatory models.”
Troy Dayton, Arcview Group CEO, said, even with the downgrade, the industry “is on the cusp, ready to explode.”
“We are already seeing an enormous amount of interest from investors and entrepreneurs who recognize the unique scale of the opportunity presented by these ballot initiatives… should they pass,” he said.