Legal marijuana outsold both Viagra and tequila in 2016
The legal marijuana industry brought in between $4 billion and $4.5 billion in 2016, outselling Viagra and Cialis, paid music streaming services, tequila, and Girl Scout cookies.
In 2016, sales of medical and recreational marijuana increased more than 30% over the year prior, according to the 2017 Marijuana Business Factbook, an industry report produced by the research and editorial teams at trade publication Marijuana Business Daily.
2016 was a big year for weed. Seven US states legalized the drug in some form on Election Day. California, the sixth-largest economy in the world, became the biggest domino to fall with the passage of Proposition 64. Much of the West Coast is now a legal enclave for recreational pot.
More Americans favor legalizing weed outright than ever before, according to a Gallup poll. A majority of them already live in states that have access to the drug for medical use.
And the so-called green rush shows no sign of slowing down.
Despite mixed signals coming out of the Trump administration on where the president and the US Department of Justice stand, sales of medical and recreational marijuana are expected to rise another 30% this year, hitting between $5.1 billion and $6.1 billion.
The Marijuana Business Factbook points out that if it does, legal weed will add frozen pizza and retail ice cream to the list of industries it has eclipsed in revenue.