Despite being a nascent and still federally illegal operation, most states deemed cannabis companies and ancillary services as essential businesses when COVID-19 hit the U.S. Since that time, consumer demand has sustained – if not grown – and patients have been able to continue getting their medicine. Now, the legal cannabis industry is looking towards the future and “new normal” with expanding, legitimized workforces that have kept the industry alive during a national economic downturn.
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August was a fantastic month for the broad market indexes. That wasn't the case for the cannabis sector, though. Two of the biggest cannabis-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were down last month.
But there were some notable outliers. The three best-performing marijuana stocks in August delivered sizzling returns of 40% or more during the month. Here are those high-flying stocks -- and whether or not they're smart picks to buy now.
CannaCon the seminal cannabis convention is coming back to Oklahoma City Monday, September 28 to Tuesday, September 29 at the Cox Convention Center.
With over 100 exhibitors showcasing some of the best products in the industry including world class genetics, the latest in packaging, and the latest in extraction equipment, you will find everything you need to grow your cannabis business. CannaCon is dedicated to supporting emerging markets, and Oklahoma is home to a quickly growing medical cannabis industry.
The investor landscape in cannabis keeps evolving. Big-name investors with deep pockets fairly recently caught on to the potential of fast-growing cannabis companies, opening up the possibilities for funding expansions or making changes to the business.
At the same time, high valuations dropped toward the end of 2019 and several companies reported layoffs and course corrections to finish out the year.
With valuations being less speculative in nature and larger and perhaps savvier investors becoming more active in this space, how can your company grab and hold their attention?
Some cannabis marketers look down on digital advertising, preferring the idea of building their brands without having to pay for clicks. Others believe that digital cannabis advertising isn’t even allowed.
Both notions are incorrect. First, brands that use digital advertising will be seen by many more eyeballs than purely organic marketing. Second, many forms of digital cannabis advertising are legally compliant in any state, and in some ways, these ads are actually less restrictive than the traditional advertising methods brands have frequently pursued instead.
What happens when a movement becomes an industry? That’s precisely what’s playing out every day in the commercial regulated cannabis market. It’s important to consider how the cannabis industry has a more profound burden and responsibility to social equity than other industries.
A company in New Zealand has developed the world’s first hemp-based meat, which it plans to roll out as a sustainable alternative to meat as early as next year.
With the COVID-19 pandemic firmly in place, industries relying on events are being forced to not only rethink their marketing and promotion strategies, they are also seeing a demand to take their shows online by innovating reactive, virtual platforms.
While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promotes hemp-based protective masks, businesses that sell CBD are being denied PPEs. What gives?
A federal program that provides personal protective equipment (PPE) to small businesses is being denied to businesses that sell CBD products.
Denver currently holds 4,500 PPE kits that include important protection for frontline workers, like face shields, disinfectants, surgical masks, thermometers, and hand sanitizer. But Denver-based headshop Meadowlark 64 can’t receive any of those kits because a federal grant doesn’t allow federal funds to help cannabis-related businesses.
Since the beginning of the year, the poor performance of the Canadian marijuana sector has foiled many investors' expectations. In the face of constant oversupply, inventory writedowns, and shrinking margins, cannabis companies have had no choice but to convert stock to cash in order to make up for their operating losses.
With some in Seychelles being known for indulging in recreational cannabis use, its continued prohibition is government’s way of saying: do as I say, not do as I do.
With New Zealand’s referendum on the legalization of marijuana fast looming, former Prime Minister Helen Clark has become quite vocal on the topic saying she wants the referendum to pass because it would end the prohibition on the popular drug so that citizens do not have to get their supply from “tinny houses.” This while also paves the way for promoting marijuana tourism.
She has stated forcefully that older politicians who are calling for prohibition are typically Boomers who hypocritically used the drug themselves in their university days.
In December 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a list of pesticides approved for use in hemp cultivation. This was the first federal guidance on what products could be used to treat hemp after it was legalized in 2018.
“Under the Trump Administration, the EPA is committed to providing much-needed certainty to farmers and ranchers across the country who rely on crop protection tools to ensure a global supply of products, while driving economic growth in agricultural communities across America,” said EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler in the release announcing the list.
Hemp. It's related to marijuana, but you don't smoke it, you make things with it.
After being banned for more than 80 years, it's once again legal to grow it.
However, in Florida, hemp farmers are facing a challenge insuring their crop just as hurricane season heats up.
From paper straws to perfumes, even designer dresses, hemp is in line to become the key ingredient -- a durable fiber that thrives on sunshine, the kind Florida has in abundance, making the state nearly perfect for growing.
If you were wondering: No, the marijuana industry hasn't lost its allure. Although the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF fell 36% in the past year, some pot stocks have reported impressive sales. With national elections on the horizon and marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballot in few U.S. states, investors are optimistic about the industry's room to grow. Medical cannabis is already legal across Canada, in 33 U.S. states, and the District of Columbia. The market should expand even more as marijuana-related therapies offer patients benefits that conventional therapies have failed to provide.
Cannabis companies are learning that to survive the pandemic, bigger isn’t necessarily better.
Specialized operations and a narrow geographic footprint are buoying marijuana providers such as Trulieve Cannabis Corp. at a time when the broader industry is struggling with falling demand and capital constraints. That’s a shift from a few years ago, when exuberance in the market pushed cannabis companies to expand their reach across the nation in a hasty land grab, which has left many onetime heavyweights overextended.
Companies with a broader reach got “punished” last quarter, said Joe Caltabiano, a cannabis entrepreneur who recently left the company he co-founded, Cresco Labs. With the industry shift, “you’re starting to see a separation of winners and losers.”
