Akerna, a cannabis compliance tech company, says Americans may be indulging in more than just barbecue and pie this Independence Day.
The company estimates that cannabis sales in states where its purchase is legal will reach $450 million in anticipation of the holiday, while, according to WalletHub, Americans are only expected to shell out $371 million for chicken.
Both products still trail behind beef, which is expected to bring in about $804 million worth of purchases.
It’s not that Americans are losing their appetite for chicken anytime soon, Akerna CEO Jessica Billingsley told Cheddar. “I think it’s more about the demand for cannabis as an alternate substance, as something for recreation, as something for health and wellness benefits,” she said.
“We will see sales this week increase by 80 percent, compared to an average week,” said Billingsley. “It’s a holiday spent with friends, not necessarily family.“ Orders are also expected to jump nearly $3.50 higher than the average daily order, which is $97.57.
Akerna also predicts that Americans will spend more on cannabis than wine in 2020.
The company says it calculates these projections by tracking data in more than 20 states, as well as in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
“We provide a regulatory compliance software technology platform to both the cannabis operators ー the cultivators, the manufacturers, the distributors, and the retailers ー as well as a [business-to-government] product to the government agencies to oversee compliance in their jurisdiction,” said Billingsley.
“Because of providing that technology platform, we have this wealth of data over nine-and-a-half years to be able to predict with a very high degree of accuracy what we will see.”
Akerna was formed just last month, following a long-awaited merger between cannabis technology companies MJ Freeway and MJ Tech.
In recent days, Akerna announced that it will be expanding to Europe, with two new clients in Italy and Macedonia, and opening an office in Colombia.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
