Only have a minute? Here’s our cheat sheet to make you smarter about the cannabis industry, faster.
Welcome to our cheat sheet on the marijuana industry. Check out other parts of our deep dive here.
In 2018, legal sales of cannabis are expected to exceed $10 billion, more than McDonald’s sales nationwide. Before states started legalizing marijuana, the illegal cannabis market in the United States was already estimated to be between $30 to $40 billion, nearly as big as America’s largest cash crop, corn. Corn!
Responses to the Gallup poll question “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal, or not?”
2000
2018
The beginning of weed’s legalization dates back to the worst days of America’s AIDS crisis, when dying young men turned to cannabis for comfort, but also because it boosted their appetites and relieved pain and nausea. Dennis Peron, a gay Vietnam veteran who ran an illegal dispensary in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, is credited with writing the country’s first medical marijuana law, Proposition 215 or “The Compassionate Use Act,” which California voters passed in 1996.
IRS rule 280E blocks businesses that deal in federally illegal drugs from deducting business expenses on their taxes. Furthermore, American banks are still reluctant to take on dispensaries and similar businesses because of marijuana’s federal status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. Now that the cannabis industry is mature enough to have its own lobbyists, the end of 280E and access to bank accounts are its top two priorities.
