Report: Legal pot could be $1.2B industry in Mass.

BOSTON – If Massachusetts voters approve an expected ballot measure this fall legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, the state could become home to a $1.2 billion cannabis industry by 2020, according to a report.

The research, released late last month by the marijuana data and investment firms ArcView Market Research and New Frontier, predicts the advent of legal marijuana would make Massachusetts a thriving hub of “canna-tourism” in the Northeast, depending on whether neighboring states also legalize marijuana, The Boston Globe reported.

Researchers projected that revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana – “adult-use” marijuana, in the parlance of proponents – would top $300 million in 2018, likely to be the first full year the business would be legal. Revenue would then nearly triple to more than $900 million in 2020, the firms said, which combined with the expected continued growth of medical-marijuana sales would put the state’s total marijuana market at $1.17 billion.

The projection is speculative, but not outside the realm of possibility: Sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado topped $996 million last year, netting the state about $135 million in taxes and fees, according to the Denver Post’s Cannabist publication. •

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  1. If the sale and recreational use of marijuana is legalized, Rhode Island should tax and regulate the use of marijuana like tobacco, not like alcohol. Alcohol is found in most homes and businesses in Rhode Island where children are present. This leads to children becoming addicted to alcohol. To protect our children, Rhode Island should control the growth, production, distribution, type, quality and sale of marijuana products. Private individuals would not be allowed to grow or use marijuana in public establishments. Legal marijuana would be sold for the private recreational use of adults. Marijuana products would only be sold in vending machines owned and serviced by the state of Rhode Island and payment would have to be made with a personal credit card. The quality, strength and amounts sold each week would be regulated. Giving marijuana to children would be punishable by a fine of $1,000.00. Legal marijuana would available at thousands of locations in Rhode Island and at a lower price than illegal marijuana.