Cannibis Industry

Matt Guilhem at KCRW-FM:

Cannabis is America’s fastest-growing industry, but how much cash does all the cush translate to?

Leafly Senior Editor David Downs tells KCRW the “green rush” is taking over the nation.

KCRW: Where does cannabis stand among other harvests nationally?

When we look at these adult-use states, we often see cannabis being the number one cash crop in that state. In Oregon and Colorado as well as Massachusetts and Nevada and Alaska, cannabis is the number one cash crop.

What's telling is that in a lot of these states, they haven't had legalization for very long. Illinois cannabis is the number three cash crop, and people have been able to shop in stores for just over a year.

How about California?

We think California cannabis farmers on the legal side are producing about 514 metric tons of the crop each year, and the value of that cannabis production in dollars is $1.66 billion.

That ranks cannabis as number five among state crops. Number four is strawberries at $2 billion, and number six is tomatoes at $1.19 billion.

That's a massive market, and the crazy thing is four out of five pounds grown in the state are still growing in the illicit market.

The 514 metric tons amount for the adult-use market is likely just a fraction of the actual amount California is growing. California remains the number one domestic producer of cannabis since the 80s.