A recent survey by American Marijuana – the same group that offered a job for someone to create cannabis content online – asked over 1,000 people who have traveled to another state to buy legal marijuana about where they travel to and what they buy.
As you can imagine, a lot of interesting data came out of the survey. One surprising finding – at least to me – was that over 36% of respondents said they traveled to another state to buy legal cannabis via plane, while about 57% traveled via automobile. I would have expected that number to skew much heavier toward autos, since airports have heightened security when compared to the roads.
What didn’t come as a surprise were the states that consumers are making the trip to: Colorado, California, Washington, Nevada and Massachusetts. Oregon not making the top five could be surprising to some considering the low prices consumers in the state enjoy, but Massachusetts is the only place in the east to make the list and they are likely getting traffic from many states.
While 52% said they have traveled to Colorado to buy cannabis, 33% said they have made the trip to California. Colorado probably gets their advantage here thanks to having legalization for a longer period of time and lower prices overall.
Another interesting data point involves consumers who have legal adult-use cannabis in their state and yet have traveled to another state for purchases. This category covers almost 30% of respondents, a rather high number that reflects the supply holes that still exist in many recreational states.
When it comes to what people are buying, it’s probably surprising to few that edibles topped that list. Since edibles take some time and effort to make, many will want to take advantage of the ability to just buy them and cut out the time and effort part.
Flower is also a popular purchase, followed by pre-wrapped joints and CBD oils.
While perusing this survey, I couldn’t help but think of all the wasted time represented by these trips. How often do you travel to a completely different state to purchase anything? I live in Kentucky, less than a 10-minute drive from Ohio, yet I find I rarely need to cross the state line to buy something.
Imagine all the time saved if these consumers had a retail marijuana shop within 10 or 20 miles. Think of what could be accomplished with all of those extra hours.
One day the subject of this survey won’t even be an issue. That day can’t come soon enough for tens of millions of adults.
