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Edibles May Account for Half of 2015’s $5.4 Billion in Legal Pot Sales

Edibles May Account for Half of 2015's $5.4 Billion in Legal Pot Sales - GREEN RUSH DAILY

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Edibles May Account for Half of 2015’s $5.4 Billion in Legal Pot Sales

Legal Pot Sales

It may be true that cannabis-infused edibles could bring about world peace, love, and harmony. But it’s definitely true that weed edibles bring in the dough: roughly half of last year’s $5.4 Billion legal pot sales. That’s up from $4.6 billion the year before, according to ArcView Market Research.

Edibles and other infused products, which are defined as anything other than the bud itself, make up at least half of that total, dispensary owners say.

“It’s probably the most exciting segment of the marijuana industry,” says Christian Hageseth, founder and chairman of American Cannabis Partners, a holding company for marijuana-related businesses. “We still haven’t identified who’s going to be the Apple computers or the McDonald’s hamburger or the Coca-Cola” of edibles.

Many people have heard of rapper Snoop Dogg’s Leafs brand of pot edibles, but there are scores of companies popping up across the country, with names like Dixie Elixirs, Incredibles, and BlueKudu, adding new items to the marijuana menu.

Marijuana edibles can be extremely potent. What Cornucopia, a bakery owned by Arizona ex-con Peggy Noonan, bills as “The World’s Best Brownie” can fetch as much as $12.50 retail.

It contains 40 milligrams of THC. Globe Farmacy, an Arizona dispensary that sells the brownie, recommends customers start with 10-milligram increments.

The high popularity of cannabis edibles is drawing concerns from some sectors of society. They cite the obvious appeal of products like sodas, candies, and cookies to young kids, and their worried about children getting their hands on pot foods.

In the past couple of years, several states have taken action, some spurred by reports of an increase in emergency-room admissions.

Most require marijuana edibles to be sold in child-resistant packaging that’s opaque, so the contents aren’t visible, and free of cartoons or other images that may appeal to children.

The numbers suggest that while those fears may be reasonable, they are perhaps unfounded. The American Association of Poison Control Centers fielded 352 calls in 2013 and 456 in 2014 about accidental exposure to THC in children under 12.

Compare that to the 17,563 reports of children ingesting deodorants and 28,009 incidents involving diaper cream reported in 2014.

Marijuana-infused edibles, which include a dizzying range of foods, sweets and drinks, are already capped at 5 milligram of THC per serving in the recreational market in Oregon.

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