Report: Marijuana Market Projected To Hit $18,000,000,000 By 2021

A new report suggests that the marijuana industry will hit $18 billion by 2021. And unless there remains government pushback over the legalities, "the industry could reach $30 billion if every state and the District of Columbia has either a medical-only-market or a fully legal market," per The Root. Greenwave Advisors reports that "retail sales of marijuana in the United States were approximately $6.5 billion, which was an increase of 35 percent over the $4.8 billion in sales in 2015." Analyst Matt Karnes told Forbes that he "expects California to account for 40 percent of the market and that additional states will continue to come online." "In 2017 we expect growth of 18 percent to $7.7 billion as new medical-use markets come online," Karnes said. According to Forbes, "these numbers are leading to an increase in capital investments in the marijuana sector." "From 2012 to 2016, the size of the average deal jumped from $500,000 to $2.2 million. In addition, $1 billion has flowed into the industry since 2012, and 38 percent of those investing dollars have come from venture capital and angel investor," reports The Root. "Marijuana is still federally illegal, so major banks refuse to service customers in the industry. Karnes believes that will change if Donald Trump deregulates banking and loosen the restrictions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act." "This event could free up banking resources to focus on cannabis businesses," Karnes told Forbes. Karnes also notes a "marijuana market metamorphosis," "in which states are realizing that having separate regulatory efforts for their medical and recreational markets is redundant." "The biggest takeaway from the report is that as legalization increases, the black market for marijuana will fall apart"