More Growth in Customers and Sales of Cannabis in Several States

Sales of legal cannabis products grew by a large margin in 2020. They reached 18.3 billion dollars, which was a 71 percent increase over those in 2019. Researchers attributed the increase to the fact that consumers were stocking up on their cannabis supplies, in order to have enough during the stay at home pandemic time. On average, these consumers spent 33 percent more money on more cannabis products. This total increase was spent on each sale.

Legal cannabis stores experienced this increase in sales last April, right after the lockdowns took effect. This increase then lasted through the remainder of 2020.

More than 57,000 California residents are employed in the cannabis industry. Sales in that state increased to 3.7 billion dollars in 2020, and this was almost 80 percent more than those from 2019. The cannabis industry had more than 30,000 jobs in both Florida and Colorado, and 20,000 jobs in the state of Arizona. This increase came after voters approved a legal cannabis measure in 2020. Sales of recreational cannabis began last month there, in January 2021.

Overall, residents spent more than one billion dollars on legal cannabis in several states. These states are Florida, Colorado, Washington, Illinois and Oregon last year, according to a report. In the state of Michigan, as well, sales were nearly one billion dollars, and voters there had approved a recreational cannabis measure in 2018.