Sales of hemp products will reach $500 million nationwide in 2015, according to a preliminary analysis by the Boulder-based Hemp Business Journal.

That’s up 25 percent from 2014, when Americans bought about $400 million worth of such hemp-based products as clothing, cosmetics and building materials, the majority of which were imported into the U.S.

The big jump can be attributed to change in laws that legalized hemp farming after a 77-year prohibition. Three states accounted for the majority of agricultural hemp in 2015: Colorado, with 2,000 acres in production, Tennessee at 1,000 acres and Kentucky with 922.

No current system exists to track what the hemp is being grown for, but in Colorado at least, the harvest was primarily for the nonpsychoactive chemical compound cannabidiol (CBD), according to Sean Murphy, publisher of the Hemp Business Journal.

Read more of the article Boulder Journal: U.S. hemp sales will reach $500 million in 2015 at DailyCamera.com.