There are even Black Friday deals on marijuana in the U.S

Although a recent bandwagon-hopping trend in the UK, in the U.S Black Friday is a long-established tradition: a chance for Christmas shoppers to snap up bargains while the memory of a delicious turkey dinner keeps them warm. Like Boxing Day sales, only with an air of anticipation rather than depression.

And it turns out those discounts are not only offered by the shops you might expect (electronics retailers, department stores, those supermarkets that take up roughly the same amount of space as a city skyscraper). Oh, no. This year, Marijuana shops are getting in on the action, too, on what they’re calling  ‘Green Friday’.

This is the first year that recreational cannabis smoking has been legal in Colorado, and its pot shops are offering huge deals to celebrate. For three days starting today, several shops in Denver, including Ganja Gourmet, Sticky Buds and The Green Depot, will be giving huge discounts on bulk purchases.

One store, Grass Station, will have daily offers including 16 one-ounce bags of marijuana for $50 and 15 150 mg vapour cartridges for $15. That’s a huge saving given that one ounce usually costs $300, and a vapour cartridge normally goes for $35. The shop’s owner Connor Morrison told Mashable he’s looking to double his customers (to around 700-800 people a day) over the weekend.

The one problem with trying to promote ‘Green Friday’ sales is that while it’s legal to light up, it’s not legal to advertise – so shops are using apps and email newsletters to spread the weed word.

Time will tell how much these sales boost the local economy, but recreational marijuana use has already added $207 million to Colorado’s economy this year. After recent pro-pot votes in Alaska and Oregon, Washington, D.C. will soon be getting in on the act, and as Bloomberg News reports, legal pot sales in the U.S could be worth more than $10 billion by 2018.

Presumably not everyone in the country will be stoned by then. Just most people.

Image via M a n u e l’s Flickr.

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