This Week in Cannabis Investing August 23rd

As cannabis investors gear up for what many expect to be an exciting autumn, there was more interesting news this week to stoke such sentiments.

Monday, The Seed Investor began the week looking at the migration of high-profile retail sector executives into the cannabis space. Characterized by the CEO of a recruiting company as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, the cannabis sector is attracting senior management personnel from some of the leading names in retailing.

This exodus into cannabis is a mixture of the raw potential of this industry, along with some strong sales growth numbers from both Canada and the U.S. We also pointed out how cannabis is steadily moving into the mainstream as a new consumer tradition.

Tuesday, we aimed more criticism at Ontario’s provincial government for its repeated “bungling” of cannabis legalization. Why did cannabis sales in Ontario more than double in one month, from opening up just a handful of cannabis stores? It’s because Ontario had done such an abysmal job with its online sales monopoly.

Ontario over-taxes cannabis. It was the last province in Canada to begin to open cannabis stores – despite representing Canada’s largest provincial population (14+ million). Arguably, it was Ontario’s incompetence that cost Bruce Linton his job as CEO of Ontario-based Canopy Growth (US: CGC / CAN:WEED). Canada’s largest cannabis company was virtually frozen out of the Ontario market.

Speaking of Canopy Growth, we reported the receipt of its KeyLeaf extraction license. Instantly, this establishes Canopy Growth as one of Canada’s industry leaders in the lucrative niche of cannabis extraction.

Then we looked to the U.S. More definitive research has emerged that adds further proof of the enormous potential of cannabis to alleviate the Opioid Crisis. Two new studies show that the full legalization of cannabis (medicinal and adult use) leads to a decrease in opiate overdose fatalities of from 20 – 35%. Huge.

Wednesday, The Seed Investor looked at a different health crisis: “the Alcohol Crisis”. Alcohol is toxic and addictive. It is the 3rd leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. It kills twice as many Americans as opioids. Definitely a crisis.

We reminded readers about “the Cannabis Cure” for this crisis. Cannabis consumers are already phasing-out alcohol consumption – in large numbers. If just 15% of U.S. alcohol consumption shifted to cannabis, that would be an additional $35 billion per year in cannabis revenues, quadrupling the current size of the U.S. cannabis industry. Investors can profit from addressing the Alcohol Crisis.

We then looked at a different angle for cannabis market penetration: California’s first “cannabis cafe”. It’s not legal (yet) to infuse cannabis into restaurant dishes. However, one cannabis company has come up with an enterprising idea: serving an assortment of (packaged) cannabis treats along side its “farm fresh” menu.

Thursday, there was big news from Ontario. The province announced 42 “lottery winners” for new cannabis store licenses. That doesn’t mean new stores opening any time soon. It simply allows these lottery-winners to begin the province’s application and review process for obtaining a cannabis store license.

Still it represents an important step in the right direction. Once opened these new stores will nearly triple total cannabis retail capacity in Canada’s largest province.

Friday, we ended the week pointing to how legalizing cannabis hasn’t merely been an economic boost for U.S. states. It’s also responsible for several very positive dynamics within U.S. cities. Simply, “legal cannabis makes U.S. cities healthier”.

Courtesy of an in-depth article from Leafly, we de-bunked three of the biggest anti-cannabis myths fabricated by the mainstream media. Legalizing cannabis doesn’t cause an increase in crime. It doesn’t cause an increase in underage usage of cannabis. It doesn’t cause property values to fall.

What legalizing cannabis does do is to significantly reduce healthcare expenses. It ends the large waste of law enforcement dollars policing obsolete anti-cannabis laws that never had any legitimacy.

With over 1,100 state and federal bills tabled in 2019 for cannabis reform, debunking the cannabis Fake News from the mainstream media will help to expedite the normalization of cannabis and cannabis commerce in the United States.