With all of the very slow-moving marijuana legislation across the country, it’s easy to forget that the industry still has a huge potential yet to be fulfilled.
A new report titled “Cannabis Beats Booze” by the firm TD Cowen reminds us of the exciting years to come. Put under the context of what the marijuana industry will take from the alcohol industry, TD Cowen has projected $29 billion in sales this year for marijuana, which is just 11% of alcohol sales. However, this percentage keeps ticking up, from only 4% of the total alcohol sales 5 years ago. And this number is going to jump way higher by the end of this decade.
“As such, we believe that over the next 5 years, the cannabis category will add 18 million past-month consumers, while alcohol will lose 2 million past-month consumers, as consumers increasingly embrace cannabis and temper their alcohol consumption,” says the report.
With the rising marijuana consumption and declining alcohol consumption, weed sales will gain another 7% on alcohol. This will add up to $37 billion in sales by 2027.
Alcohol is slowly getting replaced by marijuana with young people as the awareness of negative health effects of alcohol continues to rise.
This is apparent in states where marijuana is legal, with the report stating that the number of drinks people consume “is lower in cannabis states, which we believe is partially attributable to the impact cannabis has had on alcohol consumption.”
This trend is already apparent in Canada, where marijuana has been legal since 2018. Cannabis sales are already at 20% of alcohol sales in the country.
Read the original story at Marijuana Moment.