LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yesterday, CNBC broadcast a new in-depth report estimating the size of the marijuana business to be around $45 Billion with high estimates of as much as $120 Billion. This makes marijuana the nation's #1 growth industry. It is also California's #1 cash crop, bringing in over $14 billion annually. The industry is exploding upwards as a result of rampant expansion in California and Colorado and the lengthening list of states approving medicinal use. This news portends exciting developments for General Cannabis (PinkSheets:CANA) the Cost Mesa, CA, based multi-faceted leader in medical marijuana who, as a result of the infrastructure they have built over the past year, are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the expanding marketplace. Operating on a platform of defragmentation, General Cannabis intends to streamline the currently fractured sectors within the marijuana industry as a means of maximizing efficiency and profitability. General Cannabis is the first publicly traded company of its kind to support the medical marijuana market through management services, Internet verticals, financial services, lobbying and policy. Their intention is to become the largest company in the United States that specializes in numerous sectors of medical marijuana.
General Cannabis has already taken significant strides toward meeting their goal, successfully acquiring and operating four divisions including WeedMaps Media, Inc, the largest dispensary finder site in the United States, General Health Solutions, Inc. which manages 10 medical cannabis clinics throughout California in addition to a popular call center, General Merchant Services, Inc. dba Cannapay Merchant Services, which provides credit card processing services to medical marijuana related entities and US Cannabis, Inc., which intends to provide services to dispensaries by increasing efficiencies through proper marketing, sales, store placement, management of government compliance and corporate structure. This advanced progress, which includes the multi-million dollar profitability of Weedmaps and its 50,000 plus subscriber base, postures the company ahead of competitors attempting to enter the medical marijuana market from any of the entrance points at which General Cannabis has already made essential headway.
The marijuana industry continues to expand and General Cannabis has positioned itself to grow alongside it. Today California has more than 300,000 registered medical marijuana users and should General Cannabis continue in their current direction, it's likely they will influence the medicinal marijuana experience of nearly all of them. General Cannabis has already captured a large part of the market share with WeedMaps 50,000 users and 2 million page views per month (36% of them unique), but this is only the beginning as they embark on a full scale restructuring of marijuana management.
General Cannabis, Inc. is the parent company for WeedMaps Media, Inc, the largest dispensary finder site in the United States, General Health Solutions, Inc. which manages 10 medical cannabis clinics throughout California in addition to a popular call center and General Merchant Services, Inc. dba Cannapay Merchant Services, which provides credit card processing services to medical marijuana related entities. General Cannabis, employing an eight prong plan for market management, intends to be the largest company in the United States that specializes in numerous sectors relating to medicinal cannabis. For more information regarding General Cannabis products and services, please visit www.generalcannabis.com
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This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "intends" and words of similar import. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results or outcomes to be materially different from those anticipated and discussed herein. Important factors that the Company believes might cause such differences include: (1) concentration of the Company's assets into one industry segment; (2) the nature of the Company's business (as defined herein); (3) the impact of changing economic conditions; and (4) the actions of competitors, including pricing and new product introductions.