After Ohio Legalizes, How Many Americans 21 and Over Have Access to Legal Cannabis?

Congratulations to Ohio for joining the right side of history. There are a lot of stats being thrown around regarding what percentage of Americans now have access to legal cannabis. I took a look at some basic data from the US Census to arrive at some estimates of my own.

Raw Numbers

Question: After yesterday’s Ohio win, How many adults aged 21 and over in the US live in a state where cannabis is legalized for recreational purposes?
Answer: 132M adults 21+

Question: How many adults aged 21 and over live in the US in total?
Answer: 246.8M adults 21+

So this means 53.5% of adults 21+ now live a state where cannabis is legalized for recreational purposes. The “Just over half” statements check out…initially.

Enter Nuance

Look what happens if we change the definition to those adults 21+ who actually have access via a regulated commercial market. To do this you have to pull out Ohio and Virginia as neither groups of adults 21+ actually have access. We also have to give many other states a haircut as these states allow cities and counties to prohibit cannabis businesses, like retail. We limited CA, NY and NJ by the percentage of population where retail is open by county and NJ by municipality. So that meant reducing CA by 63%, NY by 33% and NJ by 60%.
When we take into account this nuance we’re left with:

Question: After yesterday’s Ohio win, how many adults aged 21 and over in the US have access to legal adult-use recreational cannabis?
Answer: 89.6M adults 21+

So this means 36.3% of adults 21+ now live a state where they have access to legal adult-use recreational cannabis. The “Just over half” statements start to crumble.

I’m going to keep running scenarios with this dataset and other population datasets to see what other interesting insights emerge.

Miss Grass Homecoming in New Jersey

Lots of attention on NY and well-deserved. However there is a very exciting story happening in NJ. Miss Grass, a female-founded, female-led brand, originally launched in CA, is taking the state by storm in homecoming fashion for Kate.

After watching the brand from inception in 2018 as a media + marketplace product focused on consumer education, it was a pleasure to walk into a dispensary on the east coast and purchase some Miss Grass pre-rolls. This is a brand anchored in consumer education on display. Thoughtful, unique design and messaging (recently refreshed). Visually appealing and inviting. The box of matches is a fitting touch. The promise of enhancing your experience or “times” is certainly delivered. NJ being the 5th state the brand has entered successfully, we feel confident saying that while most cannabis brands are talking about it, Miss Grass is actually doing it.

Cheers to the Miss Grass team for actually doing it.

FWIW, the Ascend store in Fort Lee has a pretty thoughtful floor design for consumer education purposes with many approachable displays. I knew exactly what I wanted because I went there specifically to get Miss Grass pre-rolls so I pre-ordered and the pick up process was as simple as it should be. First time using Dispense as well. Sign up was easy. Elegant and clean UX.