Marijuana, Cannabis, Pot, or Weed? - Let’s just call it a job machine.

While marijuana remains illegal on the federal level, 33 states now allow its sale at least for medical purposes, and eleven of them have green-lit recreational use.  As new markets allow capital to flood in, the weed industry has become by many measures, a significant contributor to the US economy. Below are the 10 exciting updates you should know about the US cannabis industry.

1. The cannabis industry employs five times more than blue-collar industries

According to estimates done by New Frontier Data, a cannabis market-research firm, the U.S marijuana industry gives jobs to at least 250.000 people.  And this data shows only the positions that directly involved handling cannabis plants, as other jobs are harder to quantify. If you compare that to the size of one of the staple blue-collar industries, coal mining, you’ll see a drastically lower number of 52,300 employed in 2018. Another study shows the cannabis industry is expected to grow to at least 330,000 jobs by 2022, way more than the 268,000 employees at US steel and iron mills.

2. The cannabis industry attracts investors like bees to honey

Investors poured approximately $10 billion into the North American cannabis market in 2018, twice the amount invested in the previous three years, according to the Associated Press.  “Investors are getting much savvier when it comes to this space because even just a couple of years ago, you’d throw money at it and hope that something would stick,” he said. “But now investors are much more discerning,” Beau Whitney, the vice president at New Frontier Data told the AP.

3. Cannabis industry could top GDP of 9 US states

According to Marijuana Business Factbook, the impact of the legal cannabis industry on the U.S economy was between $20 billion and $23 billion in 2017 and it is expected to reach  $77 billion by 2022. By comparison, the GDPs of West Virginia and Idaho were both a tick over $77 billion in 2018. It also tops the GDP of nine states, including Alaska, Delaware, and both South and North Dakota.

4. The U.S Cannabis market is $52 billion worth, 87% of the sales were on the illegal market

According to Arcview Market Research, the U.S. had a $52 billion market for weed in 2016. However, of that, sales of legal cannabis scored just $6.2 billion in 28 states with legalized medical marijuana and eight states with fully legalized weed. As you might guess, the rest of the roughly $46 billion was comprised of illegal weed sales.

5. Americans buy more cannabis than they buy Oreo and donuts

Well isn’t that sweet? Marijuana Business Factbook shows there was around $6 billion worth of legal-pot sales in 2017, which is more than the sales of Oreos ($700 million) and donuts ($19.9 billion). Americans also opted more for weed than video games, the estimated demand for which was $36 billion in 2017. That is roughly $14 billion less if you consider the total $52 billion cannabis boom of both legal and illegal sales for that year. As of more recently, pot-smoking has scored particularly high during lockdown times.

6. A Colorado county made a whopping $35 million of the pot industry in 2016

In 2016, the cannabis industry had an economic impact of $58 million in Pueblo County, according to research done by Colorado State University-Pueblo. Added costs from the pot industry, like law enforcement and social services, estimated $23 million, which means the county made out with $35 million that year. That doesn’t strike exactly like a huge profit, but considering that Pueblo County is home to less than 200,000 residents, it is a lot.

7. Whoof. Pets are the new hot market

Pets are the new cannabis customers as owners are buying CBD oil to ease thunderstorm anxiety and pain. Several shops and dispensaries have begun promoting CBD products for cats, dogs, and other pets.  While veterinarians are not allowed to advise pet owners regarding medical cannabis use, there is evidence that CBD helps animals in the same ways it helps humans. For instance, cannabis-enriched birds food has shown to revitalize our avian friends' vocal abilities; bird keepers can buy cannabis seeds to help their parrot that stopped singing.

8. The median cannabis salary is 10% higher than the US median salary

Another industry fact that depicts the cannabis boom comes from Glassdoor, a compelling source of data that is powered by employees who are enabled to review the company they've worked for and insert information on their salary anonymously. So, according to Glassdoor data, in 2018, the median salary in the cannabis industry was $58,511 while the median salary for US workers combined was $52,863. That's a difference of 10.7%, which is significant.

9. Federal Legalization would cause a surge in Tax Revenue

Cannabis remains federally illegal, but the federal government could make a top dollar from full weed legalization. According to New Frontier Data, if weed was federally legal in all 50 states, it would generate around $132 billion in total sales tax revenue and up to 1 million new jobs between 2017 and 2025.

10. The weed police cost Americans $3.6 billion between 2001 and 2010

In the first decade of the 2000s, there were 8 million cannabis arrests in the US, according to American Civil Liberties Union data. To enforce those pot laws, America spent roughly $3.6 billion on law-enforcement costs. Well, you can certainly think of other, more meaningful ways to spend that money, aren't you? These cannabis boom industry facts depict the financial magnitude weed is having in the US. Obviously, the industry is becoming a lucrative job generator, as established markets are thriving and new ones are expanding fast. If you are wondering when is the right time to invest in your cannabis business or career, the time is now.