According to a report from Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics, global spending on legal cannabis is expected to reach $57 billion by 2027, with adult-use sales driving the industry to the tune of $38.3 billion. Medical sales are estimated to comprise $19.1 billion.
The U.S. and Canada are expected to lead the way – from $9.2 billion last year to $47.3 billion by 2027, the research suggests, with an annual compound growth rate of 18 percent. The CAGR for the rest of the world is estimated at 47 percent, representing a jump from $52 million in 2017 to $2.5 billion by 2027. The report notes that Europe and its $1.5 trillion in healthcare spending, has the potential to be the largest medical cannabis market on the planet. South America’s medical cannabis market is expected to grow from $125 million this year to $776 million by 2027, the report says. In Australia, the report estimates a CAGR of 53 percent, representing an increase from $52 million this year to $1.2 billion in 2027 – the fifth largest market in the world.
“Outside the United States and Canada, it will be almost wholly a medical-only business until the United Nations revamps the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which will likely only come after the United States’ Federal Government ends prohibition, which we don’t expect until 2021.” Troy Dayton, Arcview Group CEO, in a press release
Presently, just one nation, Uruguay, has federally legalized cannabis for adult use and from July to December 2017 the number of registered buyers in the South American country increased from 5,000 to 16,000. Canada is expected to move forward with its own recreational cannabis regime this summer. A Statistics Canada report estimated that in 2015 the nation’s medical cannabis industry was worth between C$5 billion and C$6.2 billion.