As someone who’s spent the last 8 years neck-deep in bureaucratic mess with the alcohol trade in Canada, it’s hard to feel overwhelmingly optimistic about the ‘pot boom’ in Canada and elsewhere.
I mean, it’s ‘weed’ right? As in, ‘I can plant my 4 plants per adult (the legal maximum allowed once cannabis is finally decriminalized in October) anywhere in my backyard and have free cannabis any time I want’ weed.
As in, I really don’t need several million in funding to grow my own plants.
And how could it grow past a certain volume of users if you could be rejected at the border for admitting to use or even obtain a permanent record if you’re an employee, user or promoter / investor in pot stocks?
Snowbirds and other travellers to the US won’t take that risk, will they?
That said, it’s happening. With all of the evidence against it, I didn’t think it would, but what do I know?
Canopy has attracted $5 billion in funding from one of the world’s largest alcohol conglomerates, Constellation Brands.
Pot stocks exploded last week with volatility, most likely because Shopper’s Drug Mart (owned by Loblaws) will begin dispensing medical cannabis.
There’s now an entire ‘Exchange Traded Fund’ (ETF) that combines the performance of all of the various pot stocks into a single financial product, much like a mutual fund.
Niagara wineries have given up on grapes and have doubled down on marijuana.
It’s also very likely that other retailers will be able to sell weed in various forms by mid-October given the current Ontario government perspective on free markets.
Finally, we’re just Canada. We’re just 3% of the global market, but as we emerge as a successful ‘Petri Dish’ of pot growth, consumption and distribution, it’s more than likely that the investors will be able to see weed as Canada’s newest and most potent natural resource.
Welcome to the Pot-Com Era.
I beat myself up because I feel like I missed the boat on this. The Westons and other mega-families in Canada will likely cash in on pot-based crackers, gummy bears and a thousand other edible products (once edibles are legal) while the rest of us become willful consumers and adherents.
What’s your opinion on what’s happening? Are you long on pot stocks? Do you think things will radically change once pot is legal? Will people who have spent decades being harassed by doctors and others suddenly take up smoking legal cannabis? Or will everything, to paraphrase Cheech and Chong, go ‘up in smoke’ as the fad passes?