Pandemic boosts cannabis sales to $21B+ globally.
Boosted by stay-at-home restrictions, cannabis sales rose 48% globally to $21.3 billion in 2020. BDS analytics predict that cannabis sales will reach $55.9B by the end of 2026. Driving that growth is the increasing number of states that are legalizing cannabis for medicinal or recreational use. In the 2020 election, Arizona, Mississippi, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota all legalized cannabis. Recreational sales in Illinois began in January 2020. Even as the beginning of adult-use sales were lapped, sales doubled in January 2021 from the same month a year earlier. Even in mature markets like Colorado, sales increased by 26% in 2020, growing at twice the prior year's growth rate. International sales also saw a rise. Outside the U.S. and Canada, which are the two largest markets, legal cannabis sales reached $1.1B. BDS analytics predicts that international sales will top $8.3B by 2026. Almost a third of all sales outside the U.S. or Canada will come from Mexico.
IL adult-use February update
Illinois released their data for February recreational use, which drives most of the revenue in Illinois. In February, total sales were up 132% from last February, showing significant growth for this critical state. The Data shows that out-of-state sales were up 149% year over year, showing more consumers from neighboring states flocking to Illinois to purchase cannabis. February sales were up 0.7% from January when looking at average daily sales made in each month. This shows a slight uptick but a lower increase than we saw from December to January. We have seen a consistent decline in the rate of change of average daily sales in the past seven months except for December (Holiday season) as an anomaly. Important companies operating in the State are Cresco, Green Thumb, PharmaCann Verano, Jushi.
