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RetailMarijuana

Here are the states that will sell the most recreational weed

By
Tory Newmyer
Tory Newmyer
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By
Tory Newmyer
Tory Newmyer
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 14, 2015, 11:00 AM ET
Pot Prices Double as Colorado Retailers Roll Out Green Carpet
An employee pulls marijuana out of a large canister for a customer at the LoDo Wellness Center in downtown Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. Colorado has just legalized the commercial production, sale, and recreational use of marijuana, while Washington State will begin its own pot liberalization initiative at the end of February. On Jan. 8, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his state would join 20 others and the District of Columbia in allowing the drug for medical purposes. Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by Matthew Staver — Bloomberg/Getty Images

The era of legal pot is upon us. And the proof lies in all the green that green will yield. Fortune asked marijuana research firm New Frontier to crunch the numbers (modeled by Mee Inc.) to find the projected market size of the states most likely to legalize marijuana next. By 2020 those states are projected to host a multibillion-dollar market around the plant—a potentially compel­ ling argument for the rest to follow suit.

Below, the estimated size of the market ($ millions) for nonmedical marijuana in the 11 places expected to legalize it next. (It’s already legal in Alaska, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.) Height and color of the state indicate the percentage of people who smoked in the past 12 months in 2013 (latest available data).

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A version of this article appears in the September 15, 2015 issue of Fortune magazine with the headline “The United States of Weed.”

About the Author
By Tory Newmyer
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