[Payaso]

It's a BIG business, but just HOW big? That's what the author of this article being featured on CNBC asks.

Put arguments for and against legalization aside for a moment. If people could use marijuana—without fear of legal consequence—just how much would get used? More to the point, how much money is at stake?A variety of businesses and tax-deprived governments would love to know the answer. Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple one. By its taboo nature, marijuana consumption and demand is not well-measured.
Economists, reformists, law enforcement authorities and the pro-marijuana lobby, however, have come up with a variety of estimates. Put them all together and you get a range of $10 billion to over $120 billion a year. Such a wide spread is hardly a solid answer.

But some calculations may be better than others. All estimates begin with some key assumptions on the basic economic theory of supply and demand, thus laying the foundation for the size of the pot market.


Demand-Based Models: How Much Do People Consume? Demand-based models use consumption volumes and price to estimate the size of a total market. Here, the tricky part is coming up with exact figures on how much pot is consumed and how much it costs. Opinions differ.

The US Department of Health & Human Services' Substance Abuse & Mental Health Administration conducts a National Survey on Drug Use and Health. This survey, among others like it, states that roughly 10 percent of the population above the age of 12 has used marijuana in the past year, while 6 percent has used it in any given month. Of all monthly users, 15 percent use marijuana on a daily basis. By comparison, 52 percent of Americans above the age of 12 have had an alcoholic beverage and 28 percent have used tobacco in any given month.

While tobacco use has drifted downward from over 30 percent of the population per month, the marijuana percentages have been roughly consistent for at least the past ten years, according to H&HS data, and have varied by less than 1 percent over a two-decade period. Alcohol consumption has also been relatively constant, hovering around 51 percent.

For the full story visit:
https://www.cnbc.com/id/36179677

[Rednick]

The graph they didn't show was the 'Relational' price/demand graph.

If Bodie drinks X beers, and now Bodie can smoke Y joints, then how many less beers dose Bodie drink? (you can substitute Alcohol, Vics, Percs, diet pills, anti-nausea meds, ect....).

[B. Friendly]

BC exports $6billion annually experts estimate. easily the best cash crop in the province

[250wscrogger]

This is a very vauge question...due to cannabis being illegal in most states, there is no way to accurately measure how much money is in the market at any given time. There are countless people in every city who move 5-10lbs a week on the black market and don't even have any idea where the weed comes from because they're still too small to know the source. Legal medical patients are just a very small percentage of daily cannabis users.

Here's a little information and numbers that may surprise you on this subject. CIO

https://www.worldometers.info/drugs/

[Yes4Prop215]

its fuckin huge...

[Aeroguerilla]

any city i goto everyone and there grandmother on the grind. gotta be in the billions easily.

[Dr. Purpur]

Rest assured the government is contemplating where to get more revenue to spend. Im sure they are very interested in pouncing on a lions share cut

People consume what they can afford. Drop booze to a dollar a gallon and the entire world will be drunk in a week.
Sell cannabis a dollar a OZ and the world would be stoned 24/7.
So in a legalized world prices would have to be kept high to keep consumption down and tax revenues high. Thus still limiting quantities of personally grown cannabis. Legality wont be without rules, limits, fines and jail time.

[Willie Dean]

There is an interesting article in this magazine.

This is one paragraph from the story.

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Treating Yourself
The alternative medicine journal
issue #21

What Does it Cost?
by Gregorious Mandlebrot

"Los Angeles County has somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 dispensaries , The busier of those probably see close to 200 patients a day, the smallest probably as few as 20 patients a day. If the average patient buys somewhere between 1 and 14 grams per visit, and the average club sees between 50 and 100 patients per day, then the 500 or so clubs sell between 50 and 1400 grams each, or between 25,000 grams and 700,000 grams in total each day. That's right LA's medical patient base consumes somewhere between 25 and 700 kilos of medicinal cannabis each day. My guess is upwards of 250 kilos (550 lbs.) of cannabis is consumed in the LA County every day. My next question is, is it really all grown right in Los Angeles County? 200,750 pounds a year, grown in Los Angeles County? By my calculations, that would mean 1,254,687.5 square feet are currently in cultivation in the county and are being harvested at a rate of 20 grams per square foot per 90 days. 50,187,500 watts of power running 12 hours a day, not to mention the vegetative rooms it would take to supply clones for 50,000,000 watts of flower rooms."

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If this were true that's $1,000,000,000 (one billion) sold in LA per year and that's just legally!!!


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