{"id":5403,"date":"2023-05-01T04:20:38","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T11:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?p=5403"},"modified":"2023-05-02T06:54:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T13:54:41","slug":"americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We now live in a time when people spend more on legal cannabis than chocolate, something that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago, much less during the lifetime of most Americans. But few things offer such a quick way to see how things have changed in the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>A new survey released by <a href=\"https:\/\/mjbizdaily.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marijuana Business Daily<\/a> reported that people spent an estimated $30 billion on legal marijuana in 2022 and about $18 billion on chocolate. So, it\u2019s not even close. People also spent more on cannabis than on craft beer, opioid medication and topical pain relief.<\/p>\n<p>Those last two seem to fit with studies that have found that the more people have access to legal cannabis, the less they spend on opioids and other painkillers. More people than ever look to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/cannabis-combination-manage-pain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cannabis to better manage pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Sales Expected to Grow Over Next Few Years<\/h2>\n<p>The report not only found that more people than ever buying cannabis, but also predicted a steep increase in sales over the next few years. The publication predicts that cannabis sales will reach $57 billion a year by 2028.<\/p>\n<p>That would place cannabis sales higher than tobacco sales. Currently, according to the report, Americans spent these estimated amounts on a selection of products in 2022.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tobacco ($52.7 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Cannabis ($30 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Opioid medication ($22.8 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Chocolate ($18.2 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Craft beer ($7.9 billion)<\/li>\n<li>Pain relief ($2.8 billion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The publication, which focuses on the cannabis industry, reached these estimates by consulting with economics and analyzing multiple consumer spending databases. Based on the current trajectory, the report estimates sales will increase by $3.6 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to note cannabis sales are reaching these milestones even though, unlike all the other products on the above list, cannabis is legal only in certain states.<\/p>\n<h3>The Widespread Impact of Legal Cannabis<\/h3>\n<p>The report also noted the widespread, positive impact legal cannabis is having on job creation and creating a new revenue stream for governments at all levels through taxes and fees, which in turn fund programs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/michigan-uses-cannabis-taxes-to-fund-veterans-health-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that benefit the public<\/a>. The cannabis industry not only creates new businesses and jobs in agricultural, manufacturing and retail operations, but also in ancillary businesses such as lighting suppliers, accountant agencies and law firms.<\/p>\n<p>They also note that some cities and states are home to the cannabis events and hospitality industry, contributing to the economic impact. \u201cThe marijuana industry has a large impact on the broader economy, both locally and across the nation,\u201d the report stated, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11986895\/Americans-spend-legal-weed-chocolate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to the Daily Mail. \u201c&#8217;That impact comes directly from the day-to-day needs of workers in the cannabis industry, including spending on life\u2019s necessities such as housing, transportation, entertainment and more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s another oddity about the rise of marijuana\u2019s popularity. Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, meaning it is the highest selling illegal drug in the nation, at least in the eyes of the federal government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[1257,1434],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dispensaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-01T11:20:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-02T13:54:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/marijuana-and-chocolate.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dispensariescom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dispensaries Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/\",\"name\":\"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-01T11:20:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-02T13:54:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\"},\"description\":\"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate, Study Finds\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0\",\"name\":\"Dispensaries Editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dispensaries Editor\"},\"description\":\"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate","description":"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate","og_description":"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/","og_site_name":"Dispensaries","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","article_published_time":"2023-05-01T11:20:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-02T13:54:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/marijuana-and-chocolate.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dispensaries Editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dispensariescom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dispensaries Editor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/","name":"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-05-01T11:20:38+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-02T13:54:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0"},"description":"A new analysis of consumer spending finds that these days, people in the United States spend more on cannabis than on chocolate.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/americans-spend-more-money-on-cannabis-than-chocolate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Americans Spend More Money on Cannabis Than Chocolate, Study Finds"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/","name":"Dispensaries","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b2935feeb3a368f3c87819d4c4d4cad0","name":"Dispensaries Editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9d30250f23451474024d7b90b1b0b748?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dispensaries Editor"},"description":"The editorial staff at Dispensaries.com are industry insiders, focused on bringing you authoritative and in depth coverage of the legal marijuana industry. We cover everything to the business trends, latest products and even help the cannicurious people better understand cannabis and the industry around it.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dispensariescom\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/dispensariescom"],"url":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/author\/dispensaries-editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5405,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5403\/revisions\/5405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dispensaries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}