2025 Cannabis Industry Predictions: Key Insights from Grasslands Founder Ricardo Baca

2024 was an exciting year for Grasslands: a Journalism-Minded Agency®—and for the cannabis industry: 

Nearly a dozen states were projected to hit $1 billion in total retail cannabis sales by the end of the year. Adult-use dispensaries opened in Ohio, Kentucky began the licensure award process for its medical cannabis program, and both presidential candidates took up cannabis as an issue to watch in a particularly historic election year. New cannabis trade publications like Hiii Magazine launched, as did new cannabis conferences like the Science in the City Global Medical Cannabis Symposium.

Closer to home, Grasslands added new practice areas in natural products and CPG public relations and marketing to complement the work we’ve done in the cannabis and psychedelics sectors over the past seven years. We expanded our service offerings to reflect an evolving paradigm in which cannabis is no longer treated as a siloed or illicit substance, but one of many natural products people reach for in the $1.8 trillion global consumer wellness market.

So what might 2025 hold in store for the ever-growing cannabis industry? Here are my five predictions for the next 12 months (and beyond):

1) We’ll see more female-forward dispensaries, brands and products.

As Reuters reported in the fall of 2024, dispensaries are no longer the domain of dudes. Cannabis app Jointly’s user base is now 55% women—a number likely to grow as cannabis continues to go mainstream. Women outspend men even in emerging markets like New York, and are more likely to make their purchases from licensed retailers.

What does that mean for cannabis brands? First of all, it means getting very real about why women consume cannabis and what pain points they’re trying to solve. Women are more likely than men to approach cannabis from a therapeutic or wellness perspective, and to make purchasing decisions for their romantic partners or households. 

To meet this growing demographic where she’s at, cannabis brands need to dial in their brand messaging, product functionality and campaign strategies. There are some great examples of female-forward brands already on the market, from the retro-pink steeze of Ladylike to Pure Beauty’s editorial cool.

Some companies, like Autumn Brands, have taken a functional focus with products designed for women’s sexual health, or TribeTokes’ emphasis on clean vape technology. Others have found whitespace as purpose-driven brands, like the female, indigenous-owned Shinnecock Hemp Growers. It will be interesting to see how other brands meet female cannabis consumers in the marketplace and choose to embrace this incredibly diverse segment.

2) We’ll continue to see more headlines about the risks of cannabis—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

While cannabis is a nontoxic plant, it still comes with its risks, and it’s not right for everyone. As cannabis continues to grow more mainstream, we’ll see more stories about cannabis hyperemesis syndrome and other adverse effects. And while that might be tough for cannabis proponents used to seeing cannabis unfairly maligned through War on Drugs propaganda and stigmatization, it’s not inherently anti-cannabis. 

The role of journalism is to shed light, whether it’s holding the powerful accountable or educating the public on the known benefits and risks of a variety of CPG products—including medicines, dietary supplements, foods, beverages and, yes, cannabis. In fact, one of the highlights of 2024 for Grasslands was hosting our Meet the Wellness Media Nightcap. During that event, one of our panelists remarked on the important place trade publications hold in providing that objective, in-depth B2B coverage for which mainstream publications don’t always have the bandwidth.

So long as journalists are reporting on legitimate research that was conducted in a gold-standard environment—I’m talking standards like double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical studies with a large enough sample size to make for a meaningful margin of error—that’s fair game and necessary. 

That research and its coverage provide legitimacy to this industry and demonstrate it deserves serious consideration and coverage. That’s especially true as the conversation around cannabis shifts away from recreation and vice, and toward therapeutics and wellness.

3) The global addressable market will become a lot more cannabis savvy. 

Speaking of the mainstreaming of cannabis in both markets and the media, the worldwide cannabis market will keep growing in 2025 and through the rest of the decade. Cannabis brands and entrepreneurs from outside the industry are eager to make the most of emerging markets like Germany and potential markets like Iceland. But it’s important to remember that cannabis fluency is as varied as any other language across cultures and borders.

The United States was highly effective in disseminating cannabis misinformation and regressive drug policy around the world for eight decades. Now countries across not only Europe but also Asia, South America and Africa are relearning this plant’s role in their culture and economies. Not only is B2C education crucial for brands hoping to tap the global total addressable cannabis market, but B2B education is also much-needed. 

While many state markets follow the pattern set by early legalizers like Colorado, Washington and California, regulations and market structure in other places differ significantly. There is no such thing as one-size-fits-all cannabis, and brands looking to break into new international markets need to be very intentional about improving their cannabis fluency. The first step to going global is to dig deep into the nuance of not only cannabis policy and compliance, but also how best to express value and tap into the core emotions at the heart of all great marketing and PR.

4) The state-regulated cannabis industry and the federally legal hemp industry will find common ground. 

It’s a dynamic many women in the music industry know well—sometimes stars at the top of their game are pitted against one another, even if their vibes and talents are pretty compatible. That’s how it’s been for the regulated cannabis industry and the federally legal hemp industry. The hemp THC boom of 2024 sent ripples through both sectors and the conversation around federal legalization and rescheduling. 

For both the regulated cannabis industry and the federally legal hemp industry, the end goal is nearly identical: reformed drug policy in the form of federal legalization, with common-sense compliance guardrails. Anyone who has watched regulated cannabis markets over the last decade knows how much progress has been made—and can probably intuit where lessons about social equity, taxation and regulatory oversight could be applied. 

5) We will see legal cannabis being promoted, sold and consumed in more spaces and places than ever before. 

One of the absolute highlights of 2024 for the Grasslands team was to see cannabis consumption debut at the California State Fair with a lot of national media interest and attention—and props to Grasslands client Embarc for having the vision to make it all happen. Even if your boots weren’t on the ground in Sacramento, it’s not hard to recognize how this historic event started a new chapter. 

Also in 2024, cannabis company Cookies announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with the University of Southern California’s Athletics Department. An Oregon minor-league baseball team served up legal THC beverages at the old ball game. And while online rumors that NBA and NFL stadiums were going to allow fans to spark up turned out to be fake news, the NFL has funded research into the therapeutic potential of cannabis for pain management and concussion protection.

Music festivals are already embracing cannabis in new and even more open ways. Las Vegas has  a head start on legal weed lounges. Minnesota’s unique model for cannabis legalization and regulation provides a preview of what it could look like in other parts of the country if federally legal hemp could be sold in bars and liquor stores alongside other, more traditional intoxicants. 

2025 should see even more forward progress on new venues for cannabis consumption. It no longer sounds far-fetched to imagine a future that includes cannabis cruises, Busch Gardens-style theme parks owned by cannabis mega-brands—or for that pro sports stadium consumption rumor to come true.While we wait to see how cannabis industry predictions for 2025 pan out, now is also prime time to review our prognostications from previous years. How did we do for our 2022 forecast and 2023 predictions? 

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