Most people associate using marijuana with younger people who don’t have a lot of extra cash. However, the truth is markets for marijuana are emerging across all economic and social levels.

That includes the high-end consumer who wants a luxury marijuana experience.

According to a new report, the average cannabis user is far from the old image of the lazy couch potato often seen in movies and on TV. Instead, they often represent sophisticated, professional people. People that increasingly want cannabis products that have been branded and packaged to cater to upscale clientele.

That in turn has led to the emergence of sites such as dispensaries.com. These sites offer high-end cannabis products to discerning consumers. This includes many marijuana-related products, such as CBD products, edibles, vaporizers and fashion items.

The Report Findings

Miner & Co. Studio, a marketing consulting firm in New York City, produced the report. They interviewed 800 cannabis users. Of those surveyed, 88 percent considered themselves part of a new marijuana culture that involves social, professional people rather than the stereotypical lazy stoner.

According to the report’s findings, the following applies to today’s marijuana users.

• They are 30 years old on average
• They are 65 percent male, 35 percent female
• About 65 percent have an annual household income of more than $75,000
• A vast majority – 85 percent – work full-time
• About 63 percent are married or living with a significant other, and 42 percent are parents
• Politics has nothing to do with it – 49 percent identified as Democrats and 45 percent as Republicans

What Luxury Marijuana Market Consumers Want

On the higher end of the economic scale, consumers have become more focused on branding and packaging of a product. In the survey, 80 percent said branding and attractive packaging play a part in what cannabis product they choose.

They also like celebrity endorsements, including marijuana brands from such cannabis-friendly celebrities as Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, Snoop Dogg and Whoopi Goldberg.

However, quality remained the key for these consumers, who said they will return to a brand that consistently supplies the flavor, taste and experience they want. Thus, the emerging luxury marijuana market is growing like a weed.

Robert Miner, president of Miner & Co. Studios, said in a statement with the report that a new “political and social landscape” surrounding cannabis use means mass media depictions of marijuana users will need to evolve.

He added that “media is still stuck propagating the stoner stereotype such that anyone who consumes cannabis becomes the modern equivalent of Otis, the town drunk in Andy Griffith’s Mayberry – hapless, bumbling and out of it.

“Just as drinking a beer doesn’t mean someone is a drunk or an alcoholic – simply consuming cannabis doesn’t make him or her a zoned out stoner.”

As cannabis consumers become more upscale and sophisticated, expect both mass media and the marketplace to begin reflecting the true nature of the modern marijuana user – professional, responsible people who want their cannabis products packaged and branded to suit their tastes.