Where ‘Canabusiness’ Goes, Wall Street’s Sure to Follow

Wall Street’s fat cats will be just fine with Americans rolling fat joints en masse once the other 48 states go the way of Colorado and Washington on the marijuana legalization issue. Sure enough, as Capital New York’s Joanna Molloy put it, “Marijuana is going corporate.”

Investors are becoming emboldened and putting their money into an expected $3 billion cannabis market this year—double that of 2013—from sales in medical dispensaries in 20 states and D.C., and in retail boutiques in Colorado and Washington, where recreational use is now legal.

This budding industry has “vast potential,” said Marijuana Business Daily editor Chris Walsh. “We’re talking $46 billion if marijuana is legalized nationwide,” Walsh told Capital. “More than the wine, coffee, and tea industries combined.”

However, certain other factions may not like all the developments that legalization will bring. “Consumers long used to pot’s outlaw subculture,” for example, might find that the changing scene harshes their collective mellow, Molloy opines.