Canada Legalizes Recreational Marijuana Nationwide Beginning Oct. 17: Experts React

In a widely anticipated move, the Canada Senate passed a law legalizing adult use of marijuana on a federal scale. The legislation establishes the basic criteria to allow and regulate the growth, distribution, sale and consumption of cannabis. Details will be left to provinces and territories.

Many have noted Canada has become the first G7 nation to legalize recreational cannabis. It's only the second nation in the world to do so after Uruguay.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the new legislation will go into effect Oct. 17, 2018. Using cannabis recreationally before that date remains illegal. Medical cannabis as been legal on a federal level since 2001.

What It Means

“The march towards global legalization took an important second step,” said Sumit Mehta, founder and CEO of cannabis investment banking platform Mazakali. “Cannabis as a global agricultural commodity has tremendous implications for the health of our people, plants, planet and profit. We are extremely optimistic about impact on our collective consciences as we leave this dark period of prohibition and propaganda and titrate our world towards global homeostasis.”

Leslie Bocskor, investment banker and president of cannabis advisory firm Electrum Partners said, "When we look back on this, maybe 10 years from now, we’re going to say: that day was one of the seminal moments of the transition to see global prohibition drop, and hopefully, one of the seminal moments of the end of the idea of the drug war making sense."

The Sandwich Issue

“The United States is now sandwiched between two countries that have legalized Cannabis: Mexico with legal medical use, and now Canada has legalized adult use," said Larisa Bolivar, co-founder and managing partner at TCMS Global. “It’s time that we quickly change national policies here to keep up with a growing global Cannabis economy if we are to take any leadership on forward thinking international Cannabis laws.”

Down a similar line, Ellie O. Siegel, founder of Longview Strategic, pointed out that, “The early mover advantage is more valuable in emerging industries than any other markets. The world is slowly changing its collective opinion on cannabis, and Canada is out ahead of the curve to reap the benefits. Now the burden is on the rest of the world to catch up"

Stocks To Watch

Jeff Siegel, managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, weighed in on the financial impact

“I expected it to pretty much go down like this," he said. "Canada has gone so far down this rabbit hole, there's no looking back. Although I do expect to see a bit of a sell-off once legalization is officially approved in September. As strong as the Canada cannabis market is, many of these stocks are still way overvalued. The smart cannabis investors are now loading up on US cannabis stocks, as that 's where the next big run will be.”

Siegel mentioned a few stocks he believes “are going to continue to see a flood of capital coming in…. much of which was previously flooding into Canada."

Among them were:

• MariMed Inc MRMD;
• Innovative Industrial Properties Inc IIPR;
• Liberty Health Sciences Inc LHS LHSIF;
• Green Thumb Industries GTII GTBIF;
• Medmen Enterprises Inc MMEN MMNFF; and
• iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc IAN ITHUF.

Related Links:

How To Invest In Marijuana Stocks

How Perpetually Sober KISS Co-Founder Gene Simmons Entered The Cannabis Business

Photo by Javier Hasse.