420 with CNW — US Marijuana Sales in 2021 Exceed
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People in North America have grown to expect to see a Starbucks outlet almost on every street corner. However, available information on cannabis sales suggests that marijuana could overthrow this coffee giant as legal sales of marijuana exceeded those recorded by Starbucks by a wide margin.
This is no small feat by the marijuana industry, given the fact that only 39 of all the states in the U.S. have legalized marijuana in some form, either for medicinal or/and for recreational purposes. In contrast, Starbucks has been around since the early ‘70s, and coffee has always been legal, while the legal marijuana industry traces its journey to 1996 when California voters approved a measure establishing a medical marijuana industry. The journey to complete legalization across the country is still on.
This history makes the 2021 sales records for marijuana and Starbucks all the more fascinating. Both industries grew last year, with Starbucks revenue increasing by an impressive 25%. However, marijuana edged Starbucks on the growth scale; cannabis sales saw a year-on-year growth of 30%.
As already mentioned, marijuana is legal in different jurisdictions for different reasons. Many people who used the substance obtained from state-legal sources in 2021 did so to combat pain, to improve sleep or to simply have fun as marijuana is legal for recreational use by adults in many states.
It should be remembered that the COVID-19 pandemic was still in full swing for most of 2021, and this could have had an influence on marijuana use patterns across the country. For example, some people may have used the substance as a way to cope with the anxiety brought on by the pandemic. This anxiety could also explain why for the first time in a long time, cigarette use saw an uptick; the previous trend was for smoking to decline year after year.
The trajectory of the growth in the revenue generated by the legal marijuana industry in the U.S. is likely to keep going up given that a number of states, including New York, have modified their cannabis policies and are soon to begin commercial sales while several other states are considering passing legalization laws.
Additionally, efforts are underway to reform the federal marijuana laws. For example, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, is expected to unveil his comprehensive marijuana policy reform bill sometime before August. All these winds of change paint a positive picture for the industry’s future as well as for the future of players that indirectly serve the industry, such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX).
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