How do you consume your cannabis? In a vape, an edible, or rolled up in a simple joint? The answer likely depends on how old you are. Younger generations may prefer to smoke their weed, but edibles are turning out to be the main market draw for older adults. “We’ve began to see a migration away from a smokable product as people get older,” Brett Roper, CEO at Medicine Man Technologies, told Cheddar. “They typically look for perhaps a safer, less carcinogenic-associated smokable products, or a vape, or a candy,” he said. As different adults pick their preferred consumption methods, states are getting in on the action and raking in cash. BDS Analytics and ArcView Market Research say that regulated marijuana in North America, which includes Canada, totaled $6.7 billion dollars in 2016. That’s a 30 percent increase from the previous year. The firms expect sales to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent. California is the latest to join adult-sales market, and analyst estimates peg its tax revenues at a billion dollars in the next year. For context, that’s twice as much as Colorado--the first state that went into the sector--has achieved in the four years recreational marijuana has been legal. Roper says that as more states move to legalize pot, the federal government will be forced to bite the bullet. “We believe we’ve reached a tipping-point where the Fed’s going to have to do something towards legalization initiatives,” he told Cheddar. “States are pretty much establishing what those laws look like individually.” For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-marijuana-market-opportunity-in-california).
