The medical marijuana industry is booming in states that allow sales of medical marijuana, especially in Arizona. The numbers are in for 2014, and it’s clear that Arizona’s medical marijuana industry had it’s biggest year to date. Sales of medical marijuana in Arizona tripled last year. Per the Arizona Daily Star:
The Arizona Department of Health Services says dispensaries sold more than nine metric tons (about 10 U.S. tons) of marijuana in 2014 for an estimated gross revenue of about $110 million.
There were 1.4 million individual sales in 2014 (among the 55,000 patients), with an average of 26 transactions per patient per year, state health director Will Humble wrote in a recent blog.
The average patient bought 166 grams of marijuana in 2014. Humble says that’s an average of one joint per patient per day last year.
A big reason that medical marijuana sales increased so dramatically is probably due to cultivation rules in Arizona. Patients can only grow their own marijuana if they live more than 25 miles away from a dispensary. There are now 85 dispensaries in Arizona, and according to the article referenced above, 98% of patients live within the 25 mile zone. I like to see medical marijuana sales increase, but not at the expense of home cultivation rights for patients.
