<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of USA Today at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/09/recreational-pot-sales-forecast-at-8-billion-a-year-by-2018/7513357/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/09/recreational-pot-sales-forecast-at-8-billion-a-year-by-2018/7513357/</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 34px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 32px; line-height: 34px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><b>Pot sales: $8B tokes over the (retail) line by 2018?</b></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bolstered by decriminalization laws in Washington state and Colorado, marijuana could become an $8.2 billion retail business by 2018, an industry trade journal says.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That's a 33% jump over earlier forecasts and a five-fold increase over expected 2014 retail and medical sales, according to</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><i>Marijuana Business Daily.</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The publication boosted 2018 sales estimates due largely to a Justice Department decision to take a hands-off approach to drug enforcement in Colorado and Washington, which allow limited, legal use of pot, and the assumption that up to six more states could allow recreational and medical use.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chris Walsh, editor of CannaBusiness Media, which publishes</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><i>Marijuana Business Daily</i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">, said the $8.2 billion sales estimate could be conservative and doesn't include wholesale revenue or marijuana-related products. "The reality of retail sales could be larger,'' he said.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recreational sales are predicted to hit up to $4.2 billion by 2018; medicinal sales up to $4 billion. The year would mark the first that recreational retail sale revenue would outpace medicinal sales,</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><i>Marijuana Business Daily </i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">reports.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In Colorado, where retail sale of recreational pot began Jan. 1, state budget experts expect $1 billion in sales in 2015. Washington, where recreational sales begin June, could see $1.5 billion in annual sales by 2015.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Twenty states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical or recreational marijuana use. California, New York, Florida and New York are considering legalizing medicinal or recreational use. Alaska voters will decide whether to legalize recreational use in August.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How does $8 billion in annual sales compare to other markets? It's similar to the annual U.S. market for pet medications and the global market for premium chocolate, according to market researchers Packaged Facts and Mintel.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A man pulls out a bag of marijuana to fill a pipe on August 16, 2013 in Seattle, Washington.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><img src="cid:CDDA9AAD-504A-4A58-835C-1780AB3738EE" alt="1396605088000-AP-Hempfest.jpg" id="CDDA9AAD-504A-4A58-835C-1780AB3738EE" width="534" height="401"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Legalize it! Regulate it! Tax it!</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><img src="cid:E0C23E0C-4F14-42E2-B992-3316CC6BEC42" alt="image.jpeg" id="E0C23E0C-4F14-42E2-B992-3316CC6BEC42" width="228" height="223"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>