Vermont’s recreational marijuana law went into effect July 1 – but sales aren’t allowed, meaning business opportunities are limited to vendors offering consulting services and supplies for home growers.
Those opportunities are attracting a lot of interest, though.
For example, hundreds of people in the small New England state swarmed the vendor-entrepreneur abundant Heady Vermont “legalization celebration” on a farm in northeastern Vermont last weekend, according to the Burlington Free Press.
Vermont is the first state to legalize rec MJ through the state legislative process rather than by voter initiative. It is the ninth state with an adult-use industry; Washington DC has one as well.
- Adults 21 and older are allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana or 5 grams of hashish and cultivate up to two mature and four immature plants.
- There are no immediate business opportunities, except sales of home-grow equipment and related supplies and consulting services.
- The estimated market is 70,000 to 80,000 in-state users, according to the Marijuana Business Factbook 2018.
“For the time being, Vermont is a limited market because it doesn’t include regulated sales and taxation,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of State Policies for the Marijuana Policy Project. But she added the Vermont legislature very well could pass that piece next year.