Americans Spent More on Legal Weed than on Doritos and Funyuns in 2015

According to estimates from marijuana industry market groups ArcView Market Research and New Frontier state that within the past year Americans have spent over $5.4 billion on legal marijuana, reported the Washington Post on Wednesday.

Among that figure includes over $1 billion of sales in California, almost $1 billion in Colorado, and over half a billion dollars of legal pot being sold in Washington state.

To put those staggering figures in perspective, the Washington post cites that Americans spent more in legal weed than Doritos, Cheetos, and Funyuns combined in the year 2015. However it is important to remember that those numbers only include legal marijuana sales. Experts estimate that in 2012 the total market value of legal and illegal sales reached somewhere within the $15 billion and $30 billion.

ArcView estimates that the legal sales will likely grow at a rate of 30 percent over the next five years, leading to an expected $22 bill yearly revenue. In the future it is likely we’ll only see this number grow as more states begin to legalize medical and recreational weed, such as Vermont, Nevada, and Massachusetts.

Although these numbers are promising for the future, there plenty of challenges facing the legal marijuana industry, such as federal inconsistency of stance on use, both medically and recreationally, including individuals facing criminal charges, and businesses being void of banking opportunities or regular business tax-break programs.

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