The legal cannabis market shrank in California last year

HARBOURSIDE CANNABIS in Oakland is a modern-day temple to the delights and possibilities of the botanical marvel that is the plant Cannabis sativa. Around the airy shop move a well-heeled clientele. They browse among offerings ranging from cannabis-infused chocolate to sparkling water and vape pens. California was the first state to allow sales of medical cannabis in 1996, and Harbourside one of the first shops in America to sell pot legally. Since January last year, the firm has also been able to sell pot for purely recreational purposes. Thanks to its large number of “medical” users, California’s is the largest legal cannabis market in the world. But since the legalisation of adult sales, that market has been shrinking.

Allowing legal sales is supposed to increase the size of the market as they force illicit sellers out of business. That is the way it has happened in other states where cannabis is legal. But according to BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research, legal sales in California were $2.5bn in 2018, down from $3bn in 2017. Josh Drayton, spokesman for the California Cannabis Industry Association, says that the state has gone from being the most loosely regulated market in the world to one of the most tightly regulated. Moreover, he says the regulations go above and beyond those for other products....

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