The emerging legal cannabis industry in the United States is projected to add roughly $112 billion to the nation’s economy in 2024 according to a newly released analysis by MJBiz Daily. The projection is part of the company’s 2024 MJBiz Factbook.
“The total U.S. economic impact generated by regulated marijuana sales could top $112.4 billion in 2024, about 12% more than last year,” MJBiz stated in its initial reporting.
Currently, 24 states and the District of Columbia have passed and implemented adult-use cannabis legalization measures. Of course, cannabis remains prohibited at the federal level in the United States.
In addition to legal adult-use states, most other states in the U.S. have adopted medical cannabis legalization to some degree, ranging from robust medical cannabis programs such as what is found on the West Coast, to limited medical cannabis programs only involving cannabis-derived pharmaceutical medications and CBD products.
The industry analysis by MJBiz estimates that for every $1 that cannabis consumers and registered medical cannabis patients spend at dispensaries, “an additional $2.50 will be injected into the economy.” The authors of the 2024 MJBiz Factbook also determined that “the industry will add upward of $200 billion in additional spending to the U.S. economy by 2030.”
Cannabis sales in the United States are expected to reach $31.4 billion in 2024 according to a recent analysis by Whitney Economics. Additionally, leading cannabis jobs platform Vangst, in conjunction with Whitney Economics, estimates that the legal cannabis industry now supports 440,445 full time-equivalent cannabis jobs in the United States.
Whitney Economics also projects the following legal cannabis sales figures in the United States for the coming years:
- 2024: $31.4 billion (9.1% growth from 2023)
- 2025: $35.2 billion (12.1% growth from 2024)
- 2030: $67.2 billion
- 2035: $87.0 billion