Cannabis: ‘The U.S. is a $100 billion opportunity,’ Tilray CEO says

The U.S. market for cannabis is staggering, according to Tilray (TLRY) CEO Irwin Simon — even as it awaits a green light from Congress.

“The U.S. is a $100 billion opportunity in cannabis,” Simon told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “If you look at cannabis today in the U.S., 93% of Americans want medical cannabis legalized and about 63%, 65% want adult use. Today, it’s legal in about 33 states, plus D.C. So it’s out there that… a majority of people want cannabis legally.”

As one of the largest growers of marijuana in the world, Tilray is looking to expand its market share by focusing on recreational- and medical-use cannabis.

But the opportunities aren’t constrained to the drug, Simon stressed. There’s also a burgeoning market for cannabis-adjacent products in categories such as food, personal care products, and drinks.

“What will happen once the U.S. legalizes, the big companies like Diageo, Brown-Forman, ABI, even I think the Nestle’s and the Unilever’s will want to be into the cannabis business because they know Gen-Z, millennials, that’s very much what they want,” Simon said.

Curaleaf (CURLF) CEO Matt Darin echoed Simon’s sentiments, saying: “We believe the future is in innovation. And many of these new categories that are coming online are really driving a lot of the growth in the industry.”

[Read more at Yahoo! Finance]