Taken from new investigative research California pot sales are anticipated to hit $2.68 billion by the end of the year. Sales have seen a big spike since this past year when the state generated about $2 billion from legal marijuana. The cannabis market research firm Arcview Group found that California alone made up about 27 percent of the 2016 legal marijuana market in North America.

The most current research on improving California pot sales was a study led by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center at UC-Davis. Researchers estimated that recreational marijuana will account for about $5 billion in yearly sales. California’s medical marijuana sales are still far ahead of states that have already gone recreational. In fact, Colorado and Washington just broke $1 billion in sales annually, while California made $2 billion through medical marijuana alone. As soon as the California recreational market launches, it will immediately be the largest in the country.

Investigative researchers project that about $5.7 billion worth of marijuana was sold under the radar of the law this past year. However, that number along with medical marijuana sales are expected to drop once recreational marijuana sales begin in the state.

Recreational marijuana will have a 15 percent excise tax on top of the state’s 8.8 percent sales tax so there may be some incentive to purchase off the books. In the first year of legalization, researchers estimate that illegal sales will be nearly cut in half. So legalization is not great for everyone.

Researchers estimated medical sales would drop 70 percent. However, medical marijuana isn’t taxed as recreational will be so many regular users will have all the incentive they need to remain a part of the program. It will still cost a $100 fee to obtain a card so to someone that only smokes a couple of grams on the weekend it may not be worth it.

In reference to BDS Analytics, a lot of the capital being spent in California was on cannabis flowers for smoking. They prefer a traditional smoke over edibles, cartridges, concentrates and other cannabis-derived products. Flower sales accounted for 55 percent of all sales made in the cannabis market. Indica is apparently the most sold cannabis flower in California.

The price of marijuana buds per pound has gone up since the beginning of the year. Many growers will be disrupted by the changes in regulation expected at the end of the year. As a result, they’re hiking prices because it will become expensive to operate in compliance once the new rules apply.

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