CANNABIS ECONOMY BRINGS IN 11BN UKP

Cannabis Smokers Just Want To Stay On The Sofa And Snack, Spending Hours
Engrossed In Home Entertainment. Red Bull And Smoothies, 'munchie' Snacks
Such As Mars Bars And Haribo Jellies. Pizza Chains. Video Stores. Games
Consoles. Multichannel Tv. And What Scares Them... Shiny, Noisy Places With
Too Many Choices Such As Starbucks And Mcdonald's High-alcohol Drinks And
Strong Lagers Such As Stella Artois Pubs With Bouncers On The Door:
Businesses Alerted To Huge Profits As Study Shows Dope Users Have Money To Burn

The stock market is faltering and house prices are on the edge of a
precipice. Could cannabis smokers be the unlikely saviours of the British
economy?

A major new study is being used to advise well known household and
high-street companies about the gains and losses they face as cannabis
smoking becomes commonplace.

Research has revealed that Britain's 'cannabis economy' is worth ?5 billion
a year in sales alone.

Now it has been discovered that a further ?6bn of consumer expenditure each
year is closely linked to the growing cannabis-users' market.

'Young people between 15 and 30 are very trend-conscious and aspirational,'
said Andy Davidson, who commissioned the study for The Research Business
International, trend analysts who tracked the spending habits of young
people for six months.The study found that cannabis users spend an average
of ?20 on products that accompany their drug use each time they smoke.

Because smoking cannabis heightens appetite, users are providing a ?120
million weekly windfall to a string of takeaway food suppliers, such as
Domino and Pizza Hut, and manufacturers of 'munchie' products such as Mars
bars and Haribo jellies.

Video suppliers and manufacturers of home entertainments such as
PlayStation and Nintendo GameCube are also benefiting from the need of a
generation of users to keep themselves occupied at home while their drug of
choice remains unlawful.

'Some of these brands benefit at the moment,' said Davidson, 'but if people
become more willing to smoke in public when the law is relaxed next year,
they may be hit.'

The Government has announced that cannabis will be 'downgraded' to a class
C drug next summer making arrest and prosecution for possession less
likely. The move follows a controversial experiment in Lambeth, south
London, where police attention focused on hard drug users and suppliers
rather than cannabis smokers.

'Cannabis users also have discretionary expenditure of tens of millions of
pounds each week on places to meet and eat,' said Davidson. 'They don't
like shiny, noisy environments with lots of choices such as McDonald's. On
the whole, they prefer somewhere with low-key lighting and a
straightforward menu.

'And they don't like venues solely devoted to heavy drinking. That doesn't
mean that they won't still go out for a big night once a week, but they
avoid the sort of pubs that have heavy bouncers on the door.' Many cannabis
users also avoid high alcohol drinks, even strong lagers.

'Thursday is now my biggest night,' reported a 22-year old woman from
London. 'I hate Saturday, it's full of idiots, it's expensive. That's when
I love to stay at home and smoke [cannabis].'

'I don't visit big chain bars any more,' said Anthony Green, a student from
Leicester. 'They're very intolerant of anything that's outside their
obvious remit of drinking and pulling.

'When we use cannabis at home, there are some things we always consume at
the same time. Red Bull or smoothies, for example, and takeaway food.
There's a sort of conspiracy between consumers and retailers nowadays. You
know why you buy these things and they know why you're buying these things,
but no one says anything.'

Drug use may even affect radio and TV scheduling in future, the research
suggests. A typical 24-year old male admitted: 'I've started taking much
more interest in the Discovery Channel. Cannabis really gets you thinking
deeply about things.'

Government research has already confirmed that more than 15 million people
in Britain have tried cannabis. There are six million regular users, more
people than attend church, play Sunday league football or go jogging.
TRBI's Project Edge is the first study which has openly monitored cannabis
use for commercial, rather than medical, purposes.

Tobacco companies have worked secretly for years on trials of cannabis
cigarettes, in spite of the fact that their scientists working on the
projects risk arrest for drug possession.

However, manufacturers such as Imperial Tobacco still insist that their
'King Size' Rizla cigarette papers are intended solely for making handmade
cigarettes rather than rolling joints.

Carl Ratcliff of advertising agency TBWA said: 'As cannabis gets closer to
decriminalisation, you'll see more brands recognising that through their
advertising. It won't be explicit, but will be heavily implicit in terms of
the signs and symbols that they use.'

'It's no longer a moral issue,' said Davidson. 'Businesses targeting the
youth market can no longer ignore the fact that almost half of their
customer base is getting stoned every day. They need to make specific
projections about how that affects them.'