Based on a new study by marijuana investment and analysis companies New Frontier and ArcView, combined sales for the two segments rose to $5.7 billion a year ago, up from $4.6 billion in 2014.
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Authorities in San Francisco said there were more police and more park rangers on hand this year to make sure this annual carnival of cannabis is trouble free.
California is one of several states where advocates are pushing to have marijuana legalized for recreational use this year. The number later became synonymous with smoking marijuana and April 20 soon became the annual holiday.
The event could have been the last unofficial pot holiday because a marijuana legalization initiative is expected on the November ballot.
Four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington) – in addition to the District of Columbia, where the USA capital is located – now allow the recreational use of marijuana, while 23 others permit the use of the drug for medicinal purposes. And the Vermont Legislature is discussing a proposal to legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce. In those states pot heads can celebrate out and the open, and are!
Several Las Vegas marijuana businesses held grand opening ceremonies, including the Cannabis Chapel, which offered customers a pot-themed wedding package complete with a silk cannabis bouquet all for $104.20. Dispensaries are banned in the tourist corridor, so owners are banking on shuttles to bring them some of the more than 40 million who visit the city each year.
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According to the marijuana magazine High Times, the concept of 4/20 originated in the early 1970s, as a group of teenagers in the Bay Area city of San Rafael used it as code to gather after school and smoke the plant.
