$1 Billion Cannabis Market by 2020 -- and Only 1 Small-Cap Marijuana Stock Is Set to Profit
If you're familiar with the U.S. marijuana industry, you might think the headline of this article contains a mistake. Marijuana sales in the U.S. are estimated to have totaled $6.7 billion last year. So why would a cannabis market be worth only $1 billion by 2020? The answer is that there are multiple cannabis markets.
Marijuana and hemp both come from the cannabis sativa plant, but hemp is a variety of the plant that contains much lower levels of the psychotropic chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) than marijuana does. Because of this, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) can't go after companies that sell hemp-based products as they can for marijuana growers.
While there are many industrial uses for hemp, one of the fastest-growing markets is hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD). Market research firm Brightfield Group estimates that this market totaled $170 million last year and could hit $1 billion within the next three years. And there's only one small-cap stock poised to profit from this tremendous growth -- Medical Marijuana Inc. (NASDAQOTH: MJNA).
Source: Fool.com
