With leisure pot now authorized in 18 states, hashish is a bona fide worthwhile money crop. In November, Leafly Holdings, Inc. launched its first ever “Cannabis Harvest Report” that examined “farm licenses and manufacturing within the 11 states which have authorized adult-use shops open and working.”
“Hashish is medically authorized in 37 states, however for functions of this report we targeted on working adult-use states—the 11 states the place any grownup can stroll right into a licensed retailer and purchase hashish—for salience to most of the people,” the report’s authors wrote. “In these 11 adult-use states, hashish helps 13,042 licensed farms that harvested 2,278 metric tons of marijuana final 12 months. That quantity would fill 57 Olympic swimming swimming pools, or over 11,000 dump vans stretching for 36 miles—and it’s returning $6,175,000,000 to American farmers yearly.”
That determine of a little bit greater than $6 billion “ranks (hashish) because the fifth most respected crop in america,” trailing corn ($61 billion), soybeans ($46 billion), hay ($17.3 billion), and wheat ($9.3 billion) however outpacing cotton ($4.7 billion), rice ($3.1 billion), and peanuts ($1.3 billion).
The report stated that in 5 of the states the place adult-use hashish gross sales are authorized—Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon—hashish is definitely probably the most invaluable crop.
“In every of the 11 states with adult-use retail shops working, hashish ranks no decrease than fifth by way of agricultural crop worth—typically inside two years of the primary shops opening. In Alaska, the hashish crop is value greater than twice as a lot as all different agricultural merchandise mixed,” the report’s authors wrote.
The objective of the harvest report, Leafly stated, was to “quantify annual hashish manufacturing in operational adult-use states, similar to the USDA’s Financial Analysis Service does for all non-cannabis crops.”
“The US Division of Agriculture (USDA) tracks annual yields, costs, and estimated values for practically each business crop grown in America. However the USDA doesn’t observe authorized hashish because of the plant’s standing as a Schedule I drug,” the authors wrote. “That’s simply bizarre as a result of in authorized adult-use states, hashish is persistently one of many highest-value crops within the discipline.”
“We additionally imagine it’s time to finish the stigma hooked up to hashish farming. Far too many state agricultural businesses and policymakers nonetheless deal with hashish growers with contempt,” they continued. “Some right-to-farm legal guidelines particularly exclude hashish farming. Most hashish farmers should—by legislation—cover their crops from public view, as if the mere sight of a fan leaf may induce intoxication. These unfair and pointless measures are taken in opposition to a authorized crop that’s one of many prime agricultural merchandise in each adult-use state. Hashish farmers are farmers, interval.”
The report’s findings echo a examine launched final month. That analysis, which got here through the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking, discovered that the 11 states with licensed adult-use hashish retailers generated greater than $3.7 billion in complete income in 2021.
That determine amounted to a income enhance of 34% from leisure hashish in these states in contrast with 2020.
“The legalization and regulation of hashish for adults has generated billions of {dollars} in tax income, funded vital companies and applications on the state stage, and created 1000’s of jobs throughout the nation. In the meantime, the states that lag behind proceed to waste authorities sources on implementing archaic hashish legal guidelines that hurt far too many Individuals,” stated Toi Hutchinson, the president and CEO of the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking, who added that the findings function “additional proof that ending hashish prohibition presents super monetary advantages for state governments.”