Some new cannabis statistics are causing the alcohol industry in the US to shake in their boots.

With over half of the country’s states embracing some form of legalized marijuana and a few states permitting recreational use, cannabis is poised to affect the alcohol industry at some point. According to a new study, the beer industry stands to lose billions if marijuana is legalized nationwide.

The study states:

“Cannabiz Consumer Group’s (C2G) research findings predict that legal marijuana will take 7.1% of revenues from the existing retail beer industry.”

The profit losses are predicted to exceed 2 billion dollars. Research attempts to predict what will happen when and if weed is legal nationwide and many alcohol consumers are preemptively making the switch over to marijuana. The study writes, “Twenty-seven percent (27%) of beer drinkers state that they already have substituted cannabis for beer, or would substitute their beer retail purchases with cannabis in the future if legal.”

There’s no shortage of pot smokers either. The study proclaims, “There were 24.6 million legal cannabis consumers in the US in 2016. C2G projects that legal cannabis penetration will settle at a level comparable to that of beer and wine and that a fully mature market would create a new $50 billion industry.

“The forecasts were generated using C2G’s CannaUse™ study on the cannabis mindset and behaviors of 40K individual participants, the company’s warehouse of over $55 Million in cannabis purchase transactions, and CPG consumer panel and point-of-sale data sourced from IRI through an exclusive data and analytic share arrangement,” the study writes.

Rich Maturo, the CEO of C2G explained that there are ways to begin to approach offsetting losses sustained in the beer industry but it comes first from understanding why marijuana users smoke weed.

“Those at risk of losing sales to legalized cannabis can undertake a variety of actions to offset their losses,” he said. “Consumers use cannabis to satisfy various need social, medical and experiential need states. By understanding these needs, those at risk of losing sales to cannabis can try to offset some of the losses by understanding and speaking to a consumer’s needs.”

Socially speaking, alcohol is the most widely used drug in America, made legal Prohibition. Research shows that alcohol not only kills but is often found in the bloodstreams of those who have been convicted of crimes at the time they committed their offense.

Maturo says the best way to compete with marijuana is to take on an accepting approach.

“Those companies that are gathering insights on cannabis and have the foresight to see it as presenting an opportunity in addition to a risk will fare much better than those who strictly take a defensive position,” he said.

In response, the alcohol industry has been caught multiple times lobbying to keep pot illegal. They are chomping at the bit to force the state to continue kidnapping and caging people who use pot as this forces everyone to be a customer of theirs. Within the mountains of email texts of WikiLeaks, was a paid segment by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), stoking fear within Washington, encouraging politicians to be wary of marijuana legalization.

A message from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America:

“While neutral on the issue of legalization, WSWA believes states that legalize marijuana need to ensure appropriate and effective regulations are enacted to protect the public from the dangers associated with the abuse and misuse of marijuana.”

“23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal marijuana while Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and D.C. have legalized possession and recreational use. In the years since the state legalized medicinal use, Colorado law enforcement officials have documented a significant increase in traffic fatalities in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.”

The fight against legalized pot is being heavily bankrolled by alcohol and pharmaceutical companies, terrified they might lose market share.