{"id":556669,"date":"2017-09-23T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=556669"},"modified":"2017-09-23T12:00:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-23T12:00:49","slug":"the-future-of-legal-cannabis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=556669","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Legal Cannabis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"legal<\/a><\/div>\n

By Anthony Summers<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The cannabis market is still young and faces many legal hurdles. But that hasn’t stopped the money from rolling in\u2026<\/p>\n

Last year, legal cannabis spending reached $6.7 billion in North America \u2013 a 30% increase over the previous year’s sales.<\/p>\n

That figure is expected to rise another 22% this year to about $8.2 billion. And by 2018, cannabis spending should top $11 billion.<\/p>\n

That growth is being driven by a wave of legalization initiatives that have opened up new markets for the budding industry.<\/p>\n

Eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of cannabis. And 29 states have legalized medical cannabis use.<\/p>\n

Though the industry is gaining momentum, a major roadblock remains\u2026<\/p>\n

Cannabis is still illegal on a federal level.<\/p>\n

Under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, cannabis is classified as a Schedule 1 substance, putting it in the same category as heroin and LSD.<\/p>\n

However, there’s a debate over the validity of this classification. In fact, new legislation was recently introduced that would effectively \u201creschedule\u201d cannabis as a Schedule 3 substance.<\/p>\n

That would put it in the same category that contains combination products such as Vicodin and Tylenol with codeine, which are commonly used under medical supervision to treat pain.<\/p>\n

Of course, some advocates want to go further and legalize it across the board. But until that happens, most cannabis spending will continue to take place in the shadows\u2026<\/p>\n

Legal cannabis spending accounted for only 13% of the overall cannabis market in 2016. When you include the illegal cannabis market, total spending was actually a whopping $53.3 billion.<\/p>\n

That means the illegal market is SIX times larger than the legal market is. That’s a market ripe for expansion when, not if, cannabis is fully legalized.<\/p>\n

But this brings up an important question\u2026<\/p>\n

Just how large is the medical cannabis market?<\/p>\n

[iu-adbox]
\nThe Future of Medical Cannabis
\nMany people think the marijuana industry is driven by hippies and college students. However, most of the legal sales so far are for medical use.<\/p>\n

In 2016, recreational use accounted for just one-third of spending. Medical use accounted for the rest.<\/p>\n

Cannabis-based treatments are often used to treat a wide range of conditions, including back pain, sleeping disorders, glaucoma and depression.<\/p>\n

Cannabis can also be used to treat multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n

GW Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: GWPH) is at the forefront of plant-based cannabinoid treatments for neurological conditions. Its flagship drug, Sativex, treats the spasticity symptoms of multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n

The drug has already been commercially licensed in 16 countries outside the United States and has regulatory approval in an additional 12 countries.<\/p>\n

Another one of GW’s cannabis-based drugs, Epidiolex, is designed to treat Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome \u2013 two rare forms of epilepsy. And so far, it’s been proven to drastically reduce seizures in patients, compared with the results from those taking a placebo.<\/p>\n

But these treatments reflect a small portion of the medical cannabis market.<\/p>\n

According to the market research firm New Frontier Data, North American sales for the medical cannabis market alone will reach $24.5 billion by 2025.<\/p>\n

Last year, the regional medical cannabis market raked in about $4.9 billion.<\/p>\n

That means this market is set to grow \u2026read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Source:: Investment You<\/a><\/p>\n

The post <\/a>The Future of Legal Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Junior Mining Analyst<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Summers The cannabis market is still young and faces many legal hurdles. But that hasn’t stopped the money from rolling in\u2026 Last year, legal cannabis spending reached $6.7 billion in North America \u2013 a 30% increase over the previous year’s sales. That figure is expected to rise another 22% this year to about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=556669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=556669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=556669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=556669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}