Written and Edited by HV

With huge profit potential and the prospect of job creation, the marijuana industry is growing by leaps and bounds since the opening of the first recreational dispensaries in Colorado two years ago.

Legal marijuana market will see total annual sales at $21.8 billion by 2020, making it bigger than the National Football League, according ArcView Market Research.

In 2016 alone, the sales could hit $6.7 billion. With a new state law from California that allows pot businesses to turn a profit, the number could be higher.

The law will also take away the limits on the number of plants farmers can grow, and require marijuana businesses to hire half of their workers locally.

The industry will employ an all-cash business model, which means banks are not allowed to do business with companies that grow, sell or process marijuana. California is now a pie that everyone wants a piece of, especially celebrities.

Snoop Dogg is in talks with Californian officials about licensing marijuana, while Willie Nelson already owns a chain of marijuana stores and Wiz Khalifa has his own marijuana for sale at a dispensary in California.

23 U.S. states have passed laws that allow some form of legal marijuana, with Colorado, Alaska, Washington and Oregon already having voted to legalize the recreational use of the drug.