Cannabis grown indoors is considered better quality and sells for 40% more than greenhouse cannabis, according to an agricultural economist.

While the black market is thriving in nearly every market where cannabis is sold — it was 60% of second quarter sales in Canada in 2019 — it appears to be particularly troublesome in California, where a lack of enforcement, a lack of oversight, and regulatory burdens on legal businesses has allowed it to grow.

The city has gone to pot. Marijuana, that is.

Since the coronavirus hit, sales of marijuana have gone through the roof in both the United States and Canada. Between March 16 and 22, sales of recreational cannabis rose by 50 percent across states including California, Colorado and Oregon, while medical marijuana sales jumped 41 percent from the same period a year ago.

Despite recreational pot still being illegal here, New Yorkers are helping fuel the trend.

Nothing in the brief history of legal marijuana has ever spurred sales quite like coronavirus preppers, and now a week after its record day, the industry looks back at a wild run of days and wonders what the future holds. 

Last Monday, it quickly became apparent that, as word of pending lockdown orders started to spread across California, consumers were rushing to dispensaries. Unsure of what would happen to the cannabis supply chain in that moment, they bought huge amounts of pot.

“Every single day has been busier than 4/20,” an employee at People’s OC dispensary in Santa Ana told L.A. Weekly.

The economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak could lead to more U.S. states legalizing recreational marijuana, according to analysts at DataTrek Research.

Amid growing talk of a recession, or even a depression, countries battling the deadly virus have moved to pass stimulus measures in order to stabilize their economies as the global death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 25,000.

In New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S. with nearly 40,000 recorded cases, officials have already warned of severe budget issues due to the coronavirus.

At one of his daily COVID-19 briefings earlier this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the estimated loss of revenue for his state stands between $10 to $15 billion.

The continuing pandemic of the COVID-19 coronavirus has sparked panic buying in countries around the globe, leading to shortages of toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and some grocery items. Cannabis retailers have also seen a spike in sales, with long lines of customers eager to stock up on their favorite flower, concentrates, and edibles in several cities.

Here, Ann Allworth discusses what lies ahead for the FDA’s 2020 Cannabis policy and highlights discrepancies in their thinking

It is conceivable that U.S. lawmakers will have no other choice but to look to legal marijuana as one way to raise our economy up from the ashes. 

American citizens are living in the darkest days of our lifetime. Not only is there a real threat of being swallowed up by some pesky virus, but because of all the business closings and mandatory lockdowns, the national economy is slipping further into dangerous territory with each passing day.

Cannabis businesses have long struggled with Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, which addresses the tax consequences of cannabis’s federally illegal status and severely limits which expenses cannabis operators can deduct when filing their federal tax returns.

Cannabis sales are touching new highs as customers across the US and Canada stockpile weed to prepare for long spells of isolation because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Between March 16 and March 22, sales of recreational cannabis across key US markets, including California, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska, were up 50 percent and medical marijuana sales rose 41 percent from the same period last year, figures obtained from cannabis point of sale and data platform Flowhub show.

The federal Small Business Administration (SBA) reiterated on Monday that marijuana companies are not eligible for disaster relief loans to lessen the blow of the coronavirus outbreak.

Because cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, the marijuana industry is being denied access to these aid opportunities, including programs administered by SBA. The agency's Northwest branch confirmed that in a response to a tweet from a cannabis business owner who inquired about eligibility.

“With the exception of businesses that produce or sell hemp and hemp-derived products [that were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill], marijuana-related businesses are not eligible for SBA-funded services,” the post states.