Cannabis Just Went Public on the Nasdaq

Today – Tuesday, February 27th, 2018 – marks a moment in history that is the telling of a new era. For the first time ever, US traders on Wall Street are getting a piece of the pot. The Nasdaq Stock Market is now listing its first shares for a cannabis company on the open trade floor. Cronos Group Inc., a Canadian company which is already flowering (and trading) in the Great White North, is now open for your investment.

Cronos is clearly establishing itself as a leader in the industry, with production operations based in Toronto, Ontario. Cronos is also a distributor to Germany-based G. Pohl-Boskamp GmbH, tapping in early on the nascent German medical cannabis market, and has partnered to build a legal grow in Israel. They have also received a license in Australia through a developed local alliance.

Bloomberg reports:

“There may be opportunities to team up with big companies in those spaces. Constellation Brands Inc., which sells Corona in the U.S., last year made a direct investment in Canopy Growth, one of Cronos’s competitors. A bigger partner can help capitalize on the industry’s enormous growth potential over the next few years.

“‘We’re driving to go from zero to Pepsi in two years,’ Gorenstein said. ‘That’s quite a bit to do without any help, so having partnerships — whether it’s an investor, distribution, joint development with alcohol and pharmaceutical companies — is very, very helpful.’

“Gorenstein’s legal background has kept the company rooted in compliance, he said. Federal illegality in the U.S. is what drove Cronos’s founders to locate and expand the company in Canada, where the plant has been federally legal for medical use since 2001. Still, Gorenstein said he hopes Cronos’s listing will bolster companies on both sides of the border.”

Let’s hope this is a kick in the pants for lagging politicians in Washington, DC, to be more proactive on the legalization front. Legal cannabis is expected to be a $31.4 billion market by 2021 at the international level. And while the is US currently responsible for 90 percent of global cannabis sales, that number is expected to drop to 57 percent in the same time frame.

While I would like to see policy change because it is humanely unjust to imprison people for cannabis, and the social repercussions of the failed drug war wreak devastation on impoverished communities and people of color, the truth is that money talks. And finally, we can have successful examples of what a regulated cannabis industry can look like.

Keep up on the most current trends in cannabis at the world’s best-known global B2B cannabis event – the International Cannabis Business Conference! Tickets are on sale now for Berlin, Germany on April 11-13; Vancouver, BC, Canada on June 24-25; and Portland, Oregon on September 27-28! Public cannabis companies, like Cronos and Canopy Growth, will certainly be on the agenda!