Author：Date：2020-11-25

The legal cannabis market is presenting an exciting growth opportunity for the packaging industry.

Medical and Recreational

The medicinal potential of cannabis and derived products—notably CBD oil—has led to its legalization in some form in many countries, including 46 out of 50 US states. These can largely be accommodated in standard pharmaceutical packaging formats and distributed via clinics and pharmacies like other therapeutic drugs.

The biggest long-term potential comes from exploiting those markets where legal recreational use is also permitted. In the US, those 10 states that have legalized recreational use now account for over 90% of cannabis packaging sales.

The widespread illicit use of marijuana already testifies to its future popularity. There will be new opportunities for cannabis brands, with branded packaging including safety and stay-fresh features to help convert this into a recognizable fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment. As this happens packaging companies and technology have a key role to play to ensure consistency of product and build brand loyalty among users.

Material Markets

Traditionally plastic bags and films have been used to package cannabis in the underground market.

As it enters the legal regulated market, new requirements are being placed on cannabis products, including the use of child-resistant fixtures, and complex labeling requirements. This is favoring wider use of rigid plastic “pop top” containers typically made from injection-molded and pigmented polypropylene copolymers. These are relatively cheap but require a lot of hand labor to fill, weigh, and apply the labels required by law.

Paperboard packaging is proving popular with cannabis users, due to its environmental friendly persona, printability and recyclability. Its difficulty to making a child resistant primary package from paperboard however, limiting its use to overpackaging.

More modern flexible plastic formats are also taking a share of this segment, and there are some child-resistant fixtures that could be adapted to cannabis packs.

Metal and glass also have significant shares in the market this is mostly due to their barrier properties that allow preservation of cannabis over a longer period.