Recreational marijuana sales might not be having as large an impact on the alcohol industry as we previously thought.
A new study out Thursday, conducted by The Distilled Spirits Council, found that spirits sales in states that have legalized recreational marijuana have actually grown since that legalization.
For its report, it looked at state-level alcohol tax receipts and actual alcohol shipment data in three states: Colorado, Washington and Oregon between 2014—when marijuana was legalized—and 2017. According to its analysis, per capita, spirits sales increased between 3.6 percent and 7.6 percent in those states since recreational marijuana legalization went into effect. Colorado is up 7.6 percent; Washington state is up 5.4 percent; and Oregon is up 3.6 percent, all on-par with the national average for the same time period, 5.4 percent.
