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California’s legal cannabis marketplace: By the numbers

Regional |

Associated Press
In this Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018 photo customers line up to buy cannabis at The Apothecarium during the store's first day of recreational marijuana sales in San Francisco. State regulators get credit for taking on the massive job of transforming the longstanding illegal and medicinal marijuana markets into a unified, multibillion-dollar industry, but the results have been mixed. Some companies are doing well, but many others are not.
AP Photo/Noah Berger,File

LOS ANGELES — After one year of broad legal sales, California’s marijuana marketplace remains in transition, as companies adapt to new rules and illegal operators continue to flourish. A snapshot of the emerging legal economy:

  • Estimated 2018 sales at licensed dispensaries and delivery services: $2.5 billion.
  • Breakdown of sales at dispensaries, by category: buds, 39 percent; concentrates, 33 percent; edibles, 16 percent; pre-rolled, 8 percent; topicals, 2 percent; accessories, 2 percent.
  • Number of cultivation licenses: 4,795
  • Number of retail storefronts: 531
  • Distributors: 996
  • Testing labs: 52

Sources: BDS Analytics; California Bureau of Cannabis Control; California Department of Food and Agriculture

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