A new study conducted by cannabis industry tech firm Akerna reports an array of relatively unsurprising facts about the contemporary marijuana market. But the most surprising revelation it reported was that almost half of all modern weed users are now over the age of 40.
The percentage of stoners in that bracket is 41.85 percent. That’s a higher population portion than many might have guessed, especially as the weed industry (and many others) seem to be laser-focused on youth.
Among other results deemed in Akerna’s “snapshot” of today’s cannabis business demographics and trends is that 63.5 percent of consumers are male-identifying, while 36.5 percent are femme-identifying.
The study also found that dispensary customers spend an average of $105.81 on a typical purchase, which buys about 2.92 products. Of those products, flower comprises a whopping 46.2 percent of all sales. That’s followed by vape cartridges and pens at 31.6 percent, concentrates at 11.3 percent, and edibles at 8.55 percent.
Akerna’s data also indicates that prescription patients tend to shell out more when visiting pot shops than customers who just show up looking to get high.
“Some of this confirms what we already know, that flower is the most popular consumption method,” James Ahrendt, Business Intelligence Architect of Akerna said. “However, we also found some surprising data points. For example, medical consumers on average spend more and purchase more items than their adult-use counterparts.”
Also, the graying-hair population is going green in such high numbers that dozens of studies seem to indicate that weed is only going to grow in popularity as society gets older.
A research project issued in April, for example, reported that the number of Americans over age 65 who regularly smoke weed or imbibe with edibles increased by 75 percent between 2015 and 2018. Many of those older people said they used pot to treat common ailments such as chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiety.
Compounding that dope news about the rise of ganja grandmas and grandpas is a study from September that determined that medical weed does not negatively impact cognitive performance in seniors. So come, everybody — let’s all get old and get high together.
