For the last two decades, support for marijuana has steadily grown. A record 66 percent of respondents in this year's Gallup poll say they support legalizing cannabis, up from 64 percent last year.
"I think a lot of consumers are coming out of the shadows, and they just feel more comfortable talking about cannabis, learning about cannabis,” says Trey Fisher.
Fisher, with Medicine Man dispensary in Denver, Colorado, says particularly of note in 2018, is the emerging client base of women and the elderly.
"The elderly, they're just looking for relief,” explains Fisher. “They're just looking for a product that works, and they don't care about the social stigma anymore."
Individual dispensaries are certainly seeing growth, but industry insiders say the pot business as a whole is still being held back.
"It’s still completely illegal under federal law, and that's sort of putting a damper on the whole industry,” says Raza Lawrence, a cannabis law attorney.
Lawrence specializes in helping entrepreneurs obtain cannabis licenses. He says if the U.S. would follow Canada in decriminalizing pot on a national level, the business would explode.
“Once that changes, you're going to see a lot more corporations starting to jump into the fray, and its gonna look a lot more like other types of industries," Lawrence says.
Both Lawrence and Fisher say that could happen soon, and they believe the move in Canada could put even more pressure on U.S. lawmakers.
"I think Canada is gonna really expedite that process a little bit," says Fisher.
