Would Amazon ever sell marijuana?

There aren’t too many industries in this world growing as quickly or as consistently as legal marijuana, and investors have taken notice. ArcView, a leading cannabis research firm, is projecting a compound annual growth rate in legal sales of 26% for North America between 2016 and 2021. If accurate, this would lead to almost $22 billion in sales by 2021.

Meanwhile, Cowen & Co. has taken an even more aggressive stance by predicting $50 billion in U.S. legal weed sales by 2026. Such an estimate would suggest that, at some point between now and 2026, the federal government will completely legalize pot.

A separate poll in August 2017 from the independent Quinnipiac University found that a whopping 94% approved of the idea of legalizing medical cannabis. Meanwhile, a meager 4% opposed the idea.

For the time being, however, marijuana remains most definitely illegal at the federal level in the United States. Currently a schedule I drug, cannabis is defined as being highly prone to abuse and having no recognized medical benefits. It’s essentially on par with heroin, cocaine, LSD, and a host of other illegal narcotics.

Would the king of online retail ever sell marijuana?

This creates quite the dilemma for U.S.-based businesses. Do they or do they not jump into a rapidly growing industry that’s illegal in most countries around the world? It does make this investor wonder, though, whether or not Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), the king of online retail, would ever sell marijuana.

To be crystal clear, Amazon’s management team hasn’t ever discussed the possibility of selling marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Any discussion here is mere speculation on my part. Still, I could see a slim-to-growing possibility that Amazon could, within the next three-to-five years, begin selling cannabis-use paraphernalia, oils, and dried cannabis.

If you had asked me a year ago whether Amazon would enter the cannabis market, my answer would have been virtually 100% “no.” However, two key changes have me rethinking Amazon’s retail future as it relates to the marijuana industry.

credit:420intel.com