This juggernaut will be bigger than the National Football League next year. Can you guess it?
Regular readers know that our goal in the Digest is to track the massive trends that are reshaping society and creating exponential investment returns, all to help make you wealthier and wiser.
But let’s see how well you know your trends … pop quiz time.
Current annual sales of the trend I have in mind are in-line with those of Taco Bell’s U.S. revenues.
Guesses?
Next clue: By 2020, expectations are that revenues will surpass those generated by the entire National Football League.
Okay, last clue:
2018’s revenues were more than spending on e-cigarettes, the wildly-popular Fortnite video game, and Goldfish crackers … combined.
If you guessed legal marijuana, congratulations!
In 2018, revenue from both legal recreational and medical marijuana in the U.S. came in roughly between $8.6 billion and $10 billion. That figure puts it on par with the aforementioned comparisons. As one more fun equivalent, by the end of 2023, sales of legal marijuana in the U.S. are likely to exceed Americans’ collective spending on gym memberships.
There’s a joke in here somewhere about marijuana, Taco Bell, video games, and going to the gym, but let’s take the high road.
Regular Digest readers know that we’re incredibly bullish on the legal marijuana trend. That’s because it’s less of a “trend” in the traditional sense, and more of a seismic shift in our culture that’s reshaping society and creating a trillion-dollar investment opportunity.
Best of all, this opportunity is still in its infancy. The glory days are ahead of us.
In today’s Digest, let’s recap the latest news. It’s further evidence of the snowballing popularity of legal marijuana which is taking us closer and closer to the watershed moment of full legalization. As regular Digest readers know, when that happens, it will be off to the races for us marijuana investors.
***Colorado passes $1 billion in marijuana state revenues
Colorado has now racked up more than $1 billion in total state revenue of legal marijuana industry. That’s yet another milestone for the state that legalized cannabis back in 2014.
Plus, as you might expect, these sales are accelerating. It took roughly three and a half years for the state to reach the $500 million mark in total revenue … but less than two years to double that figure, now hitting $1 billion.
Beyond that, April and May were Colorado’s two highest-grossing months ever. April set the record, taking in roughly $24.2 million.
About his state’s marijuana sales, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said:
It’s going very well … It’s creating tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenue for the state, filling up buildings for landlords and reducing crime … Although I like to tell my peer governors in other states “It’s not going well, don’t do it.” There is obviously more advantage to us when we are all a little bit more special, and obviously more and more states are moving in this direction.
Unfortunately for Polis, more states are doing it, with Illinois just becoming the 11th state to approve recreational marijuana, and more than 30 states have legalized medical marijuana.
***Meanwhile, Nevada just set a nationwide “first”
Legalizing marijuana is one thing … but how does legalization intersect with the private sector in terms of employment and drug testing? There’s huge gray area here.
Nevada just became the first state to remove this gray area by making it illegal to reject job applicants based on the results of a marijuana test.
The bill does have some common-sense exceptions. Notably, it will not apply to people up for jobs as firefighters and public safety positions, which includes emergency medical technicians. Also, the bill allows pre-hiring testing for operators of motor vehicles or other similar positions that “in the determination of the employer, could adversely affect the safety of others.”
***Turning toward CBD, you can now add Kroger to the list of major retailers selling CBD products
Grocery powerhouse, Kroger, will begin rolling out CBD lotions, oils and other related products in 17 states this week. It joins Walgreens and CVS, which have now been selling CBD products for months. Retail giants Walmart and Target are also reportedly exploring the possibility of putting CBD products on their shelves.
You likely recall from past Digests that the FDA held a forum last month to hear from the CBD industry. There’s increasing pressure on the FDA to enact meaningful CBD regulation that will help protect users, while paving the way for mainstream industry growth. Of course, so far, the FDA hasn’t accomplished much. We’ll continue monitoring and will keep you up to speed.
***Finally, a big congratulations to Matt McCall’s Investment Opportunities subscribers on booking huge gains
Matt McCall is our resident marijuana expert and editor of Investment Opportunities. While a great many other analysts are just now jumping on the marijuana bandwagon, Matt has been a leader in the space since 2014.
It’s this experience, as well as Matt’s investment chops, that have enabled him to lead his subscribers to huge gains in the marijuana sector.
And on that note, yesterday morning, Matt send his subscribers a flash alert to book major profits on a marijuana stock we’ve talked about many times here in the Digest — Innovative Industrial Properties.
For any readers who aren’t aware, Innovative Industrial Properties sn the only publicly traded marijuana REIT. It is the only marijuana stock to pay a dividend, and it was the first to list on a major U.S. exchange back in 2016.
From Matt’s alert:
Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR) has been on a tear since we bought it last August. It climbed as high as $90 in March before taking a bit of a breather in the $80-$90 range, and now it’s off to the races once again. With today’s pop above $100, it is time to lock in a portion of our unbelievable 200% profits.
I love this company’s business model of buying grow facilities from marijuana growers and then leasing the properties back to them. It’s a win for the growers and a win for the company. And considering it is already a leader in the United States while marijuana remains illegal, it still has a lot of room for upside.
Even with that potential, a 3X return is not something we can ignore. And by selling one-third of our position, we recoup our initial investment and play with house money from now on.
Congratulations to Matt’s subscribers for a great call with IIPR.
If you’re a new Digest reader and want to learn more about marijuana investing, you can click here to read more from our expert, Matt. This is a great time to get started, with plenty of gains like IIPR’s in front of us.
