The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that a niche cannabis-beverages market is emerging just as beer sales in general are flagging. The Globe's David Ebner writes that some reports have suggested beer sales specifically and alcohol sales in general have declined because of legal cannabis. However, government and industry data show they have increased in Colorado, Washington and Oregon, where legalization has played out for several years. In such states, however, alcohol, as well as cannabis, have been buoyed in part by population and economic growth. In Colorado, where cannabis has been legal since the start of 2014, total alcohol sales have risen each year. Beer declined in 2014, the first year of legalization, but has risen since. In Washington, where the legal sale of cannabis started in mid-2014, beer consumption increased 10 per cent between 2013 and 2017. There are different levels of worry in the beer business. Among craft brewers, for example, which have seen sales climb this decade, there isn't much fretting. University of Denver's Paul Seaborn said he has not seen cannabis take a cut from alcohol. "There hasn't been evidence one has pushed out the other," he said.