Market Size and Demand for Marijuana in Colorado [pdf]

I&#x27;m surprised at how polarized the usage percentages are. Near 50% are using between 1-5 times a month and a touch over 20% are using 26-31 times per month (daily). It sounds like people are either using casually or they throw all their chips in (not that I blame them).<p>Hopefully Wisconsin can join the club in the next decade.

My hometown of Spokane, WA just opened the first legal marijuana store all of two days ago. They sold out right away, so... the demand is definitely there.<p>What will be <i>really</i> interesting to see is how the state can compete with the existing growers&#x2F;dealers RE: price. Right now to buy marijuana legally in Spokane it&#x27;s about $700&#x2F;oz. Your friendly neighborhood dealer will have it for $200. As it is now, there&#x27;s not a lot of incentive for the old growers&#x2F;dealers to go legal, because it&#x27;ll cut into their profits (and their customers won&#x27;t want to pay more anyway).

Marijuana is an enormous growing market. Legalization will take hold over the next 10 years and the market will grow 100x what it is now. This is a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Lots of non state residents buy: purchases by out of state visitors currently represent about 44 percent of metro area retail sales and about 90 percent of retail sales in heavily visited mountain communities.<p>So nearby state might want to stop losing money and make it legal also.

I think it is worth mentioning that violent crime and property crime are down more than 10% post-legalization, that the state forecasts $30M in tax revenue, and $2M has already been created for local schools.<p><a href="http://rt.com/usa/163644-colorado-marijuana-crime-drop/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;rt.com&#x2F;usa&#x2F;163644-colorado-marijuana-crime-drop&#x2F;</a>

&quot;The demand for marijuana by Colorado adult residents is estimated to be 121.4 metric tons in 2014&quot;<p>Big number, tough to visualize: [see answer below, which did the conversion better than my attempt :]

The war on drugs has caused immeasurable harm.<p><a href="http://www.irinnews.org/in-depth/100080/114/war-on-drugs-collateral-damage" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irinnews.org&#x2F;in-depth&#x2F;100080&#x2F;114&#x2F;war-on-drugs-col...</a><p>Making drugs legal means we can treat the medical harms; spend time and money tackling the actually nasty things in the supply chain (two friends sharing a lump of cannabis = fine; a trafficked worker being forced to work in an illegal squat cannabis factory = probably bad).