| In May, Alabama became the 36th state to legalize medical cannabis, marking the second “Deep South” state to do so. Akerna data analyzed the average retail sales history of current legal medical-only marijuana markets and then compared those figures to Alabama’s population. Based on the study, Alabama is projected to retail around $48 million in its first full year of medical sales, about $163 million in the second year, and approximately $387 million in the third year of legal medical cannabis sales. It was a widely shared expectation that all southern-region states, many of which have long been led by conservative politicians, would never legalize cannabis at any level. However, recent legislative moves have proved otherwise. For example, Louisiana has a medical program, Virginia recently legalized adult use, medical licensing is underway in Georgia, and medical bills are being worked on in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky. If the remaining southern-region states were to fully legalize medical marijuana, they would see the following retail sales trajectory: | State | Population | Year 1 Sales | Year 2 Sales | Year 3 Sales | Total Sales in First 3 Years | | State with medical-only cannabis | 13,002,700 | $ 126,488,281.42 | $ 422,631,126.48 | $ 1,004,044,705.50 | $ 1,553,164,113.40 | | | Projected: | | | | | AL | 5,024,279 | $ 48,875,419.42 | $ 163,305,828.29 | $ 387,965,632.44 | $ 600,146,880.15 | | GA* | 10,711,908 | $ 104,203,806.41 | $ 348,172,744.49 | $ 827,153,938.27 | $ 1,279,530,489.18 | | KY | 4,505,836 | $ 43,832,085.03 | $ 146,454,701.29 | $ 347,932,412.47 | $ 538,219,198.79 | | LA* | 4,657,757 | $ 45,309,949.33 | $ 151,392,640.59 | $ 359,663,474.15 | $ 556,366,064.07 | | MS | 2,961,279 | $ 28,806,870.23 | $ 96,251,446.21 | $ 228,664,546.71 | $ 353,722,863.14 | | NC | 10,439,388 | $ 101,552,773.44 | $ 339,314,935.38 | $ 806,110,442.45 | $ 1,246,978,151.27 | | SC | 5,118,425 | $ 49,791,257.34 | $ 166,365,887.36 | $ 395,235,414.32 | $ 611,392,559.02 | | TN | 6,910,840 | $ 67,227,596.94 | $ 224,625,354.28 | $ 533,642,421.39 | $ 825,495,372.61 | | TX | 29,145,505 | $ 283,523,025.11 | $ 947,326,140.72 | $ 2,250,562,574.26 | $ 3,481,411,740.09 | | WV* | 1,793,716 | $ 17,448,995.53 | $ 58,301,753.76 | $ 138,507,467.91 | $ 214,258,217.20 | | * Indicates state with current limited medical program |
Virginia, which recently legalized adult-use cannabis, is projected to see over $109 million in their first year, $364 million in their second, and $866 million in their third, totaling over $1.3 billion in projected cannabis retail sales. Florida has had a full medical market for over three years and was omitted from the report. “States across the US are realizing the massive economic impact that legalizing medical marijuana would have on their local economy,” said James Ahrendt, Business Intelligence Architect at Akerna. “With so much movement happening in the south, we compared states in that region with other legal medical-only markets to uncover the potential retail sales of cannabis. The history of other markets and our data reports show that cannabis has the potential to be a major cash crop in regions of the US that are historically leaders in agriculture and farming.” Cannabis sales in other medical markets have consistently shown year-over-year growth, likely due to more medical licenses, increased retail access, and decreased stigma around the medical use of cannabis. About MJ Freeway MJ Freeway is more than software as a service. Its flagship solution, MJ Platform, includes Platform Insights. Now operators, investors, and regulators can access the industry’s largest and most statistically relevant database to drive data-driven business decisions. Platform Insights provides: - The greatest statistical relevance across countries
- Normalized data (not farmed from various disparate POS platforms)
- Full cannabis supply chain data
- Business insights founded in category management methodology
Platform Insights can eliminate the guesswork and provide answers to questions like: - What is the gross margin return on inventory?
- What SKUs should be carried?
- How do basket adjacencies influence discounting and retention strategies?
- What does a medical market look like a year or five years after decriminalizing cannabis?
Forward Looking Statements Certain statements made in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words “estimates,” “projected,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “forecasts,” “plans,” “intends,” “believes,” “seeks,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “future,” “propose” and variations of these words or similar expressions (or the negative versions of such terms or expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the ability of the MJ Platform team to help operators make decisions through analytics and reporting. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results, and involve a number of significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other important factors, many of which are outside Akerna’s control, that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors, among others that may affect actual results or outcomes, include (i) Akerna’s ability to maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and retain its management and key employees, (ii) changes in applicable laws or regulations, (iii) changes in the market place due to the coronavirus pandemic or other market factors, (iv) and other risks and uncertainties disclosed from time to time in Akerna’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those under “Risk Factors” therein. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All information herein speaks only as of the date hereof, in the case of information about Akerna, or the date of such information, in the case of information from persons other than Akerna. Akerna undertakes no duty to update or revise the information contained herein. Forecasts and estimates regarding Akerna’s industry and end markets are based on sources believed to be reliable; however, there can be no assurance these forecasts and estimates will prove accurate in whole or in part. | 
