For the weed industry, 4/20 used to be Christmas and Black Friday combined. No longer. adamkraymond reports
Bud in the time of the coronavirus. Photo: MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images On April 20, 2019, Seattle pot shop Uncle Ike’s celebrated the most important day on the stoner calendar with a party promising “so much action it’ll make your brain freak.” There were bouncy houses, glassblowers, and a petting zoo with live wallabies. It was both a cannabis carnival and an opportunity to keep the cash register ringing. In 2020, owner Ian Eisenberg was planning to top it.
That’s not what April 20, 2020, was supposed to be. As the number of states with recreational weed has grown — it’s up to 11, plus Washington, D.C. — and cannabis has become a nearly $14 billion-dollar business, 4/20 has evolved from a counterculture celebration caroling an insider reference to marijuana’s most profitable day of the year. Along with the smoke-filled concerts, there are countless doorbusters and in-store promotions that can provide a one-day surge in sales for dispensaries.
Initially, the news wasn’t so bad for the cannabis industry; it seems marijuana and toilet paper have something in common. In the week following the White House’s mid-March recommendation that people avoid crowds, work from home, and limit travel, recreational weed sales jumped 50 percent, according to one data-tracking firm. In California, sales shot up 159 percent over March 2019, while Washington and Colorado saw a 100 and 46 percent increase, respectively.
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