By the end of 2018, the marijuana business in the United States was worth $10.4 billion and employed one-quarter of a million people in work directly involving the plants, according to Beau Whitney, vice president and senior economist at New Frontier Data, a market research and data analysis firm that specializes in the cannabis industry.
Investors poured $10 billion into cannabis in North America in 2018, twice what was invested in the last three years combined, he said, and the combined North American market is expected to reach more than $16 billion in 2019.
An analysis done last year by New Frontier Data and reported by the Washington Post showed that if cannabis:
… were fully legal in all 50 states, it would create at least a combined $131.8 billion in in federal tax revenue between 2017 and 2025. That is based on an estimated 15 percent retail sales tax, payroll tax deductions and business tax revenue.
It would also serve to create more than 1 million new jobs by 2025. Leading contenders for some of the top jobs in this growth industry include women and minorities.