philadelphia pennsylvania

Legal Pennsylvania Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Would Create An Estimated 45,000 Jobs

Advocacy organization Responsible PA, in collaboration with FTI Consulting, is projecting that if Pennsylvania legalized adult-use cannabis sales the public policy change would create 45,000 new jobs. The new Pennsylvania adult-use cannabis market analysis was first reported by Marijuana Moment.

Responsible PA and FTI Consulting are also projecting that Pennsylvania’s adult-use industry would sell an estimated $2.8 billion worth of products in the first year. Furthermore, the market analysis predicts that the Pennsylvania adult-use cannabis industry will generate up to $720 million in tax revenue, which is considerably more than prior tax revenue projections.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s executive budget estimates that taxes on legalized recreational cannabis sales would generate about $250 million in annual revenue ‘within five years.’

Gallup recently conducted a poll in which it asked adult cannabis consumers about their rates of cannabis use. Gallup found that Pennsylvania had one of the highest regular cannabis usage rates in the country (11%).

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.