The Top 5 Emerging Trends in Weed

With the advent of recreational weed legalization comes a brave new world—or at least a brave new cannabis market. The demand is clear: all you have to do is turn to Nevada’s recent de facto cannabis drought to realize the demand—and the economic viability—of the market, It’s easy to figure that with new opportunities come new trends in the industry. So what exactly are the emerging trends in weed? Let’s have a look.

Cannabis Rising

As reported by Forbes, a recent study co-sponsored by Civilized Media Group and Salar Media Group pinpointed and tracked five significant trends in the cannabis industry and projected key factors for the market in the future. Among them are advancements in scientific research, “advances made in genetic and intellectual property,” craft cannabis, innovations in luxury paraphernalia and brands in general, and general consumer research. While many of these areas are self-descriptive, what do they really entail? For one thing, a casual quality; each trend is more or less interlinked with another, and without one aspect, the whole chain collapses.

Scientific research is the ground zero of these trends. According to the aforementioned report, around 22,000 studies have been published on weed since 2015. Inasmuch as this, the foundation of a U.S. Institute specifically geared towards researching the scientific benefits (or feasibly lack thereof) has also paved a way for the subject as a whole to be taken more seriously. As the report stated, “the trend here is that cannabis is now being treated as a medicine with specific benefits and applications to specific diseases. This research will only continue to expand in the years ahead.”

An important branch of this scientific research has mainly to do with agriculture, most notably regarding sustainability, which in turn has spurred a trend in craft cannabis. As Forbes noted:

“California passed the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act last year that contained requirements for water usage and prohibits the use of volatile or poisonous solvents in cannabis preparations. The report specifically calls out Humboldt’s Finest, an alliance of cannabis growers based in Humboldt County in California for following “a rain grown, sun grown cultivation technique that collects rainwater and storm runoff” to be used for watering the plants versus relying mostly on ground water.”

In turn, with state- or federally-mandated research lays the groundwork for innovations within the industry for three more trends: the evolution of creating a standardized product,  creating a higher quality product modeled after the production of high-end and specialty liquors and craft beers (hence “craft cannabis”), and luxury paraphernalia (for example: gold rolling papers).

With the latter trends more or less intertwined, this leaves one trend left: collecting general consumer information, or in other words, compiling enough information about consumers and consumer use to create and develop further trends within the cannabis industry.

Final Hit: The Emerging Trends in Weed

While these emerging trends in weed are interesting in and of themselves, it isn’t necessarily surprising. As outlined by projections in revenue for states that have already legalized recreational cannabis use, the newly-minted industry is expected to pump millions into local economies. With industrial capital comes industrial expansion—and in the case of cannabis, the gateway to the golden age of the Green Rush.