United States: CBD market could reach $22 billion by 2022

For a long time, cannabis market projections only took into account the contributions of the medical and recreational industries, with no further distinction. Then analysts realized that edibles and concentrates accounted for a large share of the industry's sales growth, so we had to delve deeper into the stats to see what was driving the market.

At the current rate, the latest predictions put legal cannabis sales in the US at $20 billion by 2020. And that's without taking into account the development of a hitherto emerging market: CBD.

The cannabidiol (CBD) is the main non-psychoactive molecule in cannabis. That's where its popularity comes from: its soothing effects are delivered without the soaring effect of THC.

Until now, CBD has been relegated to the second league. But since last year, CBD-infused products in the US have taken over beauty stores, convenience stores and doctors' offices. The CBD market is worth around $591 million in 2018, but could grow 40-fold quickly, according to a study by Brightfield Group.

«What we're starting to see this year is an explosion: face masks, insect bites, creams,» explains Bethany Gomez, research director at Brightfield, in Rolling Stone. «[CBD] is used for everything you can think of: sports, triathlon. People want to buy it for their grandmother, for arthritis. Women take it for painful periods or endometriosis, things usually treated with over-the-counter medications.»

Yet CBD is still in a gray area at the federal level. Hemp is still highly regulated, and the CBD industry has been built on word-of-mouth, with no big player at the federal level. So where would the future market explosion come from?

Simply a bill which would legalize hemp at the federal level, defined as a Cannabis plant with -0.3% THC. National chain stores could then jump at the chance to enter the market, without any legal restraints.

Does this mean’authorization for Epidiolex in the USA, the first cannabis medicine approved for the American market and which is nothing but CBD oil, as a threat? Not necessarily. As in the UK, the two markets could coexist: medical CBD on the one hand in pharmaceutical form, and CBD wellness on the other in over-the-counter products.