On Election Day 2020, 74% of Mississippi voters voted for a measure to create a broad program (Initiative 65) while rejecting a more restrictive measure that lawmakers placed on the ballot (Initiative 65A). Subsequently, the state Supreme Court threw out the entire state’s ballot initiative process which ended the medical cannabis effort in 2020.
On February 2, 2022, Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed into law the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act (SB 2095) which finally legalized cannabis in the state. The first medical cannabis sales began less than a year after the measure was signed into law, in January 2023.
“Medical cannabis was officially legalized in the Magnolia State in January of 2022. Since then, more than 40,000 Mississippians have received certification for cannabis medical care.” stated Super Talk Mississippi Media in its original coverage.
“Medical cannabis in Mississippi has produced more than $44 million in retail sales in the past year, $8 million in fees for applications and licenses, plus more than $2 million in taxes from cannabis sales.” stated WAPT16ABC.
“There are close to 400 establishments, including dispensaries across the metro, have licenses to operate and 3,000 people with permits can now work in the medical marijuana industry.” They also stated about Mississippi’s medical cannabis industry.
The United States adult-use cannabis industry has generated over $20 billion in total tax revenue since the first legal recreational cannabis purchase was made in Colorado on January 1st, 2014 according to a report by the Marijuana Policy Project.
“Through the first quarter of 2024, states have reported a combined total of more than $20 billion in tax revenue from legal, adult-use cannabis sales. In 2023 alone, legalization states generated more than $4 billion in cannabis tax revenue from adult-use sales, which is the most revenue generated by cannabis sales in a single year.” the Marijuana Policy Project stated in a press release.
79% of people living in the United States lived in a county with at least one regulated cannabis dispensary according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. The Pew Research Center also found the following:
- 74% of people in the U.S. live in a state where recreational or medical cannabis is legal
- There are nearly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S.
- California has the most overall dispensaries (3,659)
- Oklahoma has the most dispensaries per capita (36 dispensaries for every 100,000 residents)
Total legal 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
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 an 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.