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Legal marijuana outsold Girl Scout cookies in 2015

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Reuters/Fredy Builes

Americans are buying more bud than Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs combined.

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The legal marijuana business in the US raked in between $3 billion and $3.4 billion in sales in 2015, according to the newly published 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook.

As Quartz's Ana Campoy points out, that means US consumers spent more money on medicinal and recreational weed last year than Girl Scout cookies, which saw $776 million in sales. Dispensaries also outsold e-cigarette companies, which sold $1.5 billion in 2015, according to Campoy.

The report, published by Marijuana Business Daily, says this is just the beginning for the budding pot industry.

It estimates legal sales will jump as high as $17 billion this year, helped along by continued growth in states like Oregon and Washington, which have legalized recreational marijuana. In Colorado, one of the first two US states to pass such legislation, sales soared more than 42% last year alone.

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This November, California, Nevada, and Massachusetts will vote on whether to legalize marijuana, while Florida and Ohio will consider legalizing medicinal cannabis. Should trends continue, the industry could reach $44 billion in sales by 2020. Numbers like that would make the legal marijuana industry bigger than the US snack food market.

While marijuana may have surpassed the Girl Scouts in sales in 2015, we expect the two will continue to go hand in hand.

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