Investing in Marijuana Edibles

It was around 4:00 in the afternoon when my Uber driver dropped me off at a small dispensary just a few blocks from the Queen Anne B&B — my favorite place to stay whenever I find myself in Denver.

It was my last day in Denver, and I wanted to partake in some of the city's cannabis offerings, which are now completely legal.

Although I don't typically consume marijuana, I figured, when in Rome...

The inside of the dispensary looked a bit like a trendy bakery, only the jars that would typically hold biscotti and coffee beans were filled generously with marijuana.

There were also display cases where there actually were baked goods: mostly cookies.

Since I'm not a fan of pulling any kind of smoke into my lungs, I opted for a bag of chocolate chip cookies.

I won't lie; as a bit of a food snob, I thought the cookies were no better than what you might find at the grocery store. But I wasn't looking for a mind-blowing gustatory experience.

When I returned to my room, I ate one cookie and washed it down with a few sips of cold coffee I had left on my nightstand earlier that morning. I knew it would take at least 90 minutes to start kicking in, so I decided to do a little work to pass the time.

By 6:00 p.m., I was thoroughly affected — and quite hungry.

After scarfing down a delicious meal at Watercourse, one of my favorite Denver restaurants, I went back to my room and spent the next few hours trying to figure out how I could capitalize on what I believe could be one of the biggest opportunities in the legal marijuana space: edibles.

$1.25 Million Worth of Pot Cookies

According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, consumers bought 5.8 million cannabis-infused edibles and concentrate products in 2014.

That's a lot of pot cookies!

Rest assured, dear reader — that number is only going to grow. And some big money is looking to facilitate this growth.

Take, for instance, Auntie Dolores.

Auntie Dolores is a specialty edibles company that just closed a $1.25 million round of financing to help it expand into new territories. $1.25 million is also what the company expects to generate in revenues this year.

Think about that for a moment...

$1.25 million in revenues from pot cookies, brownies, and pretzels.

Auntie Dolores is one of the biggest players in the edibles space, and the company's game plan looks solid — particularly on the licensing side.

Of course, Auntie Dolores isn't publicly traded. But that doesn't mean there aren't other options.

A Tremendous Growth Story

I've been singing the praises of the legal marijuana space for a few years now. Bottom line: I haven't seen this kind of growth opportunity since I first started covering the renewable energy space back in 2005.

In 2014, the U.S. market for legal cannabis grew 74% to $2.7 billion.

Just imagine what that's going to look like as more and more states sign on to legalize.

According to investment firm ArcView — which helped Auntie Dolores with its $1.25 million raise — by 2019, all of the state-legal marijuana markets combined will result in a market value of about $11 billion a year.

And if, at some point, all states choose to legalize, the market would be valued in excess of $36.8 billion a year.

If you're looking for a growth story, you won't find one better than this.

And in the coming weeks, I'm going to tell you more about how you can get a piece of the action, too.

To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth...

Jeff Siegel

@JeffSiegel on Twitter

Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, a private investment community that capitalizes on opportunities in alternative energy, organic food markets, legal cannabis, and socially-responsible investing. He has been a featured guest on Fox, CNBC, and Bloomberg Asia, and is the author of the best-selling book, Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor's page.