The wholesale value of marijuana across 15 adult-use states has reached $5 billion—making it the sixth most valuable cash crop in the country, above potatoes and rice—according to a new report. And that’s not even accounting for the massive medical cannabis market that provides for patients in almost two dozen other states.
Leafly’s 2022 Cannabis Harvest Report fills in significant gaps in agriculture data about the crop, which has been understudied through traditional means because marijuana remains federally prohibited.
The cannabis company analyzed licensing records for legal cannabis states, sales and tax reports, commercial pricing data, field measurements, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop values and expert input to develop the report. The analysis covers past 12-month data in some states and full-year 2021 data in others.
The top-level takeaway is that the marijuana industry is a significant component of the agriculture industry, even if it’s only legal and regulated by certain states at this point. There are almost 13,300 American farms growing marijuana for adult use in the 15 covered states, it found.
The crop’s estimated $5 billion in wholesale value puts it above multiple American staple crops like potatoes. The only crops that exceed its value are corn,
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