Jessica Lukas is the chief commercial officer of the leading data analytics firm for the cannabis industry, BDSA.  I've known Jessica for many years, since she was at Nielsen, and she has a proven and unique ability for distilling vast amounts of data-points into simple, real, actionable insights. 

Join Harry as he and Jessica speak about the growing, but challenging, cannabis market in the U.S. and how it affects beverages. 

Show starts in earnest: 01:30

---time-stamped contents---

00:00 intro - hilarious banter, technical difficulties.  jenn on "special assigment" in aspen.  

01:30 SHOW STARTS:  Jessica talks wacky cannabis market. 

02:30 chaotic: every state is operating like it's own country (even more than alc). production can't pass borders. 

03:00 but it is still growing.  $61B globally - 2026, bulk from u.s.  

04:00 u.s. driving global sales, cali driving that.  next 5 yrs, most growth coming from new adult use markets:  nj, ny. 

05:00 bdsa tracking over-all cannabis sales, including illicit.  very healthy black market in cali. 

07:00 do legal adult-use cannabis sales affect bev-alc sales? 

08:30 the overlapping use-cases with cannabis and alcohol.

09:30 unfair to peg against cannabis specifically; many other factors.  co percent of users increasing. 20% to 50% adult users.

11:30 many use occasions don't overlap with bev-alc. and just form factor of beverage. 

13:30 grokking thc/cbd/hemp beverages. 

14:00 in legal states: bdsa data show edibles 15% of totes dolla sales, bevs 5% of that (1-2% of total are bevs, growing). 

15:15 bevs are heavy.  diff dose for diff'rnt folks. 

17:30 price and potency still main purchase drivers. 

18:00 bevs are a premium way to consume cannabis. 

19:30 grokking distribution of canna-bevs, making friends is our biz?

20:45 callouts for future: new market growth, big getting huge. 

21:30 watchout for those newer but established middle markets coming up. az, mi, ill, mass, etc. --  snowball effect. 

22:15 slowdown in mature markets - single digit growth. 

23:00 acceptance of general market grows.  co, az, mi, nv, over 50% adults consuming cannabis. 

24:00 big are getting bigger. multi-state operators, retail and house-of-brands, m&a footprints getting bigger. they dominate. 

28:00 de-stigmatization of cannabis continues, even as it becomes legal. 

29:30 giving gen z rare props. 

---About---

Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher joins his editors and other guests once or twice a week as they grok the industry issues of the day.  

-Podcast Hotline: Text or call Harry in confidence at:‪ (262) 345-2501‬

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