U.S. California cannabis sales value forecast 2016-2025
Californian Marijuana Market
California is the most populous state in the union and had the largest legal and illicit cannabis market in the United States, at 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. Although medical marijuana has been legal in California since the mid-1990s, the law to legalize recreational marijuana only passed in 2016 and went into effect in 2018. Between 2017 and 2018, the market for legal marijuana in California grew by 50 percent.
U.S. Consumer Opinion in Marijuana
Public opinion on marijuana has shifted drastically in the last several years. In 2003, only 34 percent of Americans believed that marijuana should be legalized outright; by 2018 this share had increased to 66 percent of Americans. In 2012, Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana and several other states have since followed suit. Fifty-five percent of Americans now believe that cannabis should be legalized, regulated, and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol are in the United States.