Cannabis Oil Industry Valued @ $20 Billion in 2020

For years, experts have predicted that if the cannabis industry expands at its current rate, the American marketwill reach $20 billion by 2020. But it turns out that one market is spinning off into a mega-industry of its own.

According to a new estimate from cannabis industryanalysts the Brightfield Group, the hemp-CBD market alone could hit $22 billion by 2022.

CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis, has had a surge in popularity over the past couple of years. Unlike THC, the chemical compound that gives weed its signature effect, CBD has been shown to help with everything from PTSD and anxiety to MS and epilepsy — without getting you high.

Cannabinoids have been proven to reduce cancer cells as they have a great impact on the rebuilding of the immune system. Although not every strain of cannabis has the same effect, more and more patients are seeing success in cancer reduction in a short period of time by using cannabis.

Previously, CBD products have been available mostly in head shops, with a few doctors recommending it for various maladies. But in 2017 and 2018, the products spread to natural food stores, beauty aisles, cafés and doctors offices.

So far the industry is on track to hit $591 million in 2018,and thanks to a number of factors — including, surprisingly, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — that could increase40 times in the next four years.

What we started tracking this year was an explosion — face mask, bug bites, skin care, topicals,” says Bethany Gomez, director of research for the Brightfield Group, who shared the analysis exclusively with Rolling Stone.

It’s being used for everything you can think of — sports, triathlons. People want to buy it for their grandma, for arthritis. Women get it for PMS and endometriosis common things that people have been using over the counter medications, just like 100 years ago, before cannabis was prohibited as a class A hard drug?

One thing that could help remedy this is the 2018 Farm Bill, which would amend the term “marihuana” — a term currently found in the 1972 Controlled Substances Act — to exempt hemp, which is defined as a cannabis plant containing less than 0.3% THC.

If the bill passes, it would open a huge new industry to farmers across the country. Hemp can be used for making numerous products, including making rope, replace plastics, building construction blocks, and much more ecological healthy alternatives.

Rolling Stone / ABC Flash Point Herbs News 2018.