Recreational weed industry verges on collapse

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Across the US, the legalized marijuana industry is buckling under the strain of plunging prices, patchwork state regulation, and burdensome taxes, analysts and industry groups say.

All of these issues are chipping away at the health of the industry to the point where I would describe the industry as in crisis in the United States,' Beau Whitney, senior economist for the National Cannabis Industry Association, told DailyMail.com this week. 'This is unsustainable from an economic perspective.'

Currently the recreational use of cannabis is legal in 23 states, and last year state-regulated medical and recreational pot sales topped $26 billion nationwide, according to Vangst.

But even while sales soar, dispensaries say eking out a profit is growing harder, as a glut of weed production pushes prices lower -- a boon for blissed-out pot consumers, but a bane for growers and retailers.

In California, dispensary chain MedMen, once dubbed the 'Apple store of weed,' teeters on the brink of financial ruin, while in New Jersey a trade group warns the industry is stagnating in a 'doom loop' due to licensing delays.

'Sadly, the legal cannabis markets demanded by countless Americans are on the verge of collapse if common sense, practical reforms are not enacted urgently,' the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) warned in a report this month.

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Nationwide, just 24 percent of companies in the cannabis industry are profitable, down sharply from 42 percent last year, according to a survey conducted by Whitney's consulting firm, Whitney Economics. 

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