When I was a long-haired teenager during the Nixon/Ford era in Massachusetts, marijuana was strictly forbidden, as it was throughout the country. I remember how parents and teachers would persistently warn us that marijuana would ruin our minds, bodies and futures. If you got busted for holding weed, you’d be cursed worse than the Red Sox.

Richard Nixon’s “War on Drugs” was a travesty, designed more to punish his political enemies (lefties, academics, protestors, etc.) than to actually curb drug use.

Back in the 1970s, marijuana penalties were harsh. A first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000. You could lose your job, get expelled from school, or go to jail. Your college prospects could go up in smoke, with scholarships and offers of admission rescinded.

As a kid, did I ever get caught with weed? I plead the Fifth. But nowadays, marijuana is as easy to procure as a six-pack of Sam Adams at your local packie.

As of this writing, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for medical purposes; 24 states and DC have legalized it for adult use (i.e. recreational). Additional states are teed-up to follow suit in 2024.

Let’s stay focused on the Bay State, where the volume of legal pot sales has been, to use Boston slang, “wicked pissah.”

Massachusetts became the eighteenth state to legalize medical marijuana when voters passed a ballot measure in 2012. Recreational marijuana became legal in Massachusetts in 2016, also via a ballot initiative.

Massachusetts is a microcosm of marijuana’s increasing popularity throughout the country. Indeed, new legal markets in the Northeast are starting to challenge the sales dominance of the West Coast.

Massachusetts surpassed $6 billion in aggregate sales since the adult-use market launched in 2016, regulators announced on April 24. On last week’s 4/20 holiday, the state broke a single-day sales record, with $8.5 million in sales (see the following social media post):

In terms of product types, past-week sales data from the commission show marijuana flower made up the plurality of sales ($13.1 million), followed by vape products ($6.0 million), raw pre-rolls ($4.8 million), infused edibles ($3.6 million), concentrate ($1.4 million), and various others. This breakdown roughly corresponds with national preferences, whereby flower is the most popular cannabis product across the country.

As of last Wednesday, Massachusetts posted $6,003,985,070 in recreational cannabis purchases. It was only last September that the state racked up more than $5 billion in sales, meaning this is “the shortest it’s taken for Massachusetts businesses to generate another $1 billion dollars in gross sales,” the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) reported Wednesday.

“I continue to be encouraged by these sales milestones because they show that the industry is strong and efficiently regulated, both spurring economic development and critical tax revenue for the Commonwealth and providing safe, tested products for consumers and patients alike,” Ava Callender Concepcion, acting chair of the CCC, said in a press release.

“With a wave of new statutory and regulatory changes beginning to take shape in Massachusetts, I’m confident that our industry is well-positioned to continue adapting, expanding, and creating more equity-driven pathways for individuals pursuing their entrepreneurial and career aspirations,” she said.

Since Massachusetts first opened its adult-use cannabis market, licensed retailers have sold more than $7 billion in legal medical and recreational marijuana combined.

This past December, the state set a new monthly sales record of $158.7 million worth of legal cannabis products, according to CCC figures, bringing the state’s total recorded sales for 2023 to nearly $1.8 billion.

Competition is fierce for customers and regulatory approval in customer-rich jurisdictions. These high-sales states (e.g., Massachusetts, New York and California) are proving to be the most powerful magnets for investment cash and venture capital activity. They’re also home to the greatest amount of mergers and acquisitions among cannabis companies.

Consolidation, in turn, is strengthening the profit margins and balance sheets of cannabis firms that previously struggled to make money. Want to see the future of cannabis? Look to my home town of Bahstin.

Crypto’s new bull market has started…

I regularly write about the opportunities in cannabis. But I also want to emphasize the big profits that await you in crypto.

If you think crypto is too dangerous an investment, think again.

Read This Story: Cannabis and Crypto: The “Disruptive Duo”

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John Persinos is the editorial director of Investing Daily…and an avid fan of the Red Sox.

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