Cannabis for Christmas

Forget baking cookies for Santa this Christmas. More people than ever are getting baked on baked goods during the holidays.

Marijuana sales soared during the 2016 holiday season. In states where the drug has been legalized, retail stores saw an average 21 percent increase in sales leading up to Christmas. The top-selling products were marijuana-infused edibles like brownies, cookies and candy at a price tag of around 15 to 20 dollars a piece. Smoking accessories including pipes and vaporizers closely followed.

Baker, the Denver-based marijuana software firm, confirmed that cannabis sales rose significantly in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona. Baker also reported that Oregon experienced an unusually dramatic sales increase of 29 percent during the two weeks prior to Christmas.

Baker CEO Joe Milton told USA Today that gifting cannabis during the holiday season is one of the ways the once taboo product is becoming more mainstream in the retail environment. The biggest sale days of the year also include Thanksgiving and April 20, known as 4/20, the most popular holiday for smokers.

“We have a feeling people will like cannabis gifts a lot more than a traditional … box of chocolates,” Milton said.

With the recent legalization of marijuana in multiple states across the country, holiday cannabis sales are predicted to be even higher during Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2017.

Chamberlain Smith is a science intern and a freelance writer based in Athens, Georgia.