More Americans than ever support the legalization of cannabis in some form. In fact, a November 2019 poll from Pew Research found that a whopping 91% of adults believe that marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational use. With widespread support comes widespread acceptability, and with acceptability comes the desire to cash in. 

Private financing and investing advice firm The Motley Fool says that the size of the marijuana industry is expected to triple in the next five years, and seasoned and novice investors alike are taking notice. However, investing in the cannabis industry is not exactly the same as investing in more mainstream — read “federally legal” — industries, like financials or utilities. 

Investing in cannabis holds some unique challenges, like the legal risks of investing in an industry under federal prohibition, understanding imbalances in supply and demand, and how to mitigate the risks of investing in the decentralized and largely unregulated over-the-counter market, where the majority of marijuana stocks trade. 

Fortunately, for investors looking to find their way, they can turn to Houston-based Alan Brochstein, CFA, Founder of subscription-based 420 Investor, and NCV Media, which fronts New Cannabis Ventures. He is also a leading blogger at Seeking Alpha, a crowd-sourced content service for financial markets. 

Why Alan Brochstein?

Widely considered to be the leading cannabis industry financial and investment analyst, Brochstein has more than 20 years of experience as a portfolio manager and industry analyst. In 2007, Brochstein founded research firm AB Analytical Services, and in 2013, he pivoted to the cannabis industry. Spotting the need for more investor transparency, Brochstein launched 420 Investor, dedicated to providing objective and real-time information for cannabis investors. 

However, you don’t have to subscribe to 420 Investor to gain cannabis industry investing insights. New Cannabis Ventures shares news, events and resources with the public for free on their site, while highlighting up-and-coming companies and leading investors. Investors are welcome to subscribe to NCV’s once-weekly newsletter, delivered each Sunday. 

Brochstein has supported the legalization of marijuana since 1980 when he became an active member of the Libertarian Party, but it wasn’t until 2014 when he focused his analyst bona fides full time on the cannabis industry. Brochstein also puts his money where his mouth is by supporting cannabis advocacy and business groups like Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Drug Policy Alliance, the National Cannabis Industry Association and Americans for Safe Access. 

In a volatile industry replete with a lot of noise and unstable legal footing, Brochstein’s stated goals of helping investors find the “most promising public and private companies in the space while helping legitimate companies boost their exposure with potential investors, strategic partners, B2B customers, and the media,” sounds like just the advice a cannabis investor needs. 

Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

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Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said on Wednesday that while President-elect Joe Biden has a “relatively middle-of-the-road” position on marijuana reform, he’s optimistic about the prospects of a federal policy change under the incoming administration.

At a National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) business summit, Yang also discussed his own political future, legalization as a means to boost the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, a cannabis strain that was named after him and the implications of state-level legalization victories on Election Day.

“He was less aggressive than, say, I was, or some of the other candidates,” Yang said of Biden, who has refused to join the majority of U.S. voters in endorsing broad cannabis legalization. “But even Joe has been making signals about decriminalizing and not prosecuting various marijuana-related statutes and restrictions.”

That signal did not come out of a recent policy page on racial equity put out by Biden’s transition team, however. It omitted cannabis reform proposals while including other criminal justice plans that were talked about during the campaign.

But Yang is optimistic about the progress the marijuana legalization movement has been seeing.

“I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled that progress is coming all the time,” he said. “I think every time we have an election, there are going to be more states that want to join the ever-growing, cool states club.”

Yang was also asked by a Politico reporter who moderated the session about different routes for federal reform and which he thought would be best from a business perspective: legalizing marijuana nationwide and mandating that states adopt the policy or simply decriminalizing cannabis. He said “it would almost certainly be full legal” if he were in charge, but that he feels under the current political climate it makes sense that states should still have autonomy to make that decision for themselves.

It should be noted that marijuana bills currently moving through Congress—including a comprehensive legalization bill that’s expected to get a House vote next month—would not mandate that states end criminalization or adopt specific regulations to create a cannabis market. Rather, the legislation advocates are pushing for would federally deschedule marijuana and let states enact their own laws without interference.

“If you were to leave it up to me and say, ‘Hey, you get to do whatever you want. You’re you’re the president and you have Congress and the rest of it,’ I would be looking at full legalization because I just do not see a reason why marijuana should be illegal in really any part of the country,” he said. “That said, in the world we actually live in, I would favor decriminalization because I think for many states, they want to have their own rules in place—like they may have different considerations than another part of the country. And they should have that discretion in most cases, in my opinion.”

“Generally speaking, communities that are closer to the ground have a better read on both what their people want and value and what the potential tradeoffs would be, by and large,” he said. “We’re very big, diverse countries. So to me, putting it in the hands of the states seems like the right move.”

Asked about the economic impact legalization could have on the budget amid the COVID-19 health crisis, Yang said he sees opportunity but also recognizes the extent of the downturn is more than one plant can handle.

“Our economy pre-pandemic was $22 trillion a year and the pandemic has blown—let’s call it somewhere between a $3-4 trillion hole in the economy. Asking marijuana to fill a $3 or $4 trillion hole is asking a lot,” he said. “We would have to be like up to our freaking eyeballs in the plant itself in order to generate several trillion.”

“So I think that it is a big business and a very big opportunity. And, you know, in the scheme of current opportunities that are out there, it is likely one of the biggest—it’s in like the multi-billions of dollars, and you can’t say that about a lot of industries,” he added. “But if we’re going to truly recover, we’re going to need massive public sector expenditures on a level that we have likely not seen ever potentially.”

True to Yang’s personality on the campaign trail, he brought levity to the interview.

For example, he excitedly noted that a dispensary had named a marijuana variety after him—”Yang Ganja” or “Yanganja,” it’s unclear what the spelling is—though he’s yet to try it so “I can’t vouch for the quality of the strain, but I’m sure it’s good.”

Yang—who made headlines during his presidential run after pledging to pardon everyone convicted of a low-level marijuana offense on the unofficial 4/20 holiday and high five them on their way out—said that the political world likely has not seen the last of him.

“You will likely see an Andrew Yang for X at some point in the future. You know, it’s gonna be a blast,” he said. “So keep an eye out Yang 20-whatever the heck the number is.”

Featured image by Lev Radin/Shutterstock

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content-sharing agreement. Read the original article here.

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Several Mexican Senate committees on Friday tentatively approved a revised bill to legalize marijuana during a joint hearing, with a formal in-person vote scheduled next week.

The legislation, which has circulated in draft form this month and further amended ahead of the meeting, would establish a regulated cannabis market in Mexico, allowing adults 18 and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and cultivate up to four plants for personal use.

Members of the Senate’s United Commissions of Justice, Health, and Legislative Studies advanced the bill, months after passing an earlier version. The panels first voted to dispense with that previous bill during Friday’s session.

A full Senate vote is expected soon after the committees’ in-person action on Wednesday, though advocates are still hoping for further revisions to promote consumers’ rights and social equity in the legal market.

The legislation as circulated earlier this week would have required individuals to obtain a government permit to cultivate marijuana for personal use, but the technical secretary of the Health Committee said on Friday that the provision was being eliminated.

Lawmakers have been working on the reform legislation for two years since the nation’s Supreme Court ruled in late 2018 that the prohibition on possessing and growing cannabis is unconstitutional. The court ordered Congress to amend the law accordingly, but the legislature has struggled to reach consensus on the issue and has been granted several deadline extensions to enact the policy change.

The current deadline to legalize marijuana is December 15.

Senate President Eduardo Ramírez said on Wednesday that there is a “consensus” to achieve the reform by the court-mandated date.

Advocates have been consistently pushing for legislative action on reform since the court ruling, though they’ve taken issue with certain provisions of lawmakers’ various proposals. Namely, they remain concerned about high penalties that can be imposed for violating the cannabis rules and feel the bill should further promote social equity in the industry.

Ricardo Monreal, the ruling MORENA party’s coordinator in the Senate, said on Friday the proposal is a significant improvement on current laws against possession, which have “only caused the detention centers to be full of people for possession of a few grams of cannabis, which is why they seek to reduce the penalties in carrying of this product.”

Zara Snapp, a legalization activist with the Instituto RIA and the coalition #RegulacionPorLaPaz, told Marijuana Moment that advocates are “hopeful” because the body seems “open to a few changes” they’re pushing for.

Separately, a cannabis advocacy association raised concerns about certain provisions that they consider excessively restrictive such as limitations on ourdoor cultivation.

The Movement for Legalization 4/2020 said that “if this project is approved without modifications, fundamental parts of this thriving industry will be excluded,” according to a translation.

The legislation does make some attempts to mitigate the influence of large marijuana corporations. For example, it states that for the first five years after implementation, at least 40 percent of cannabis business licenses must be granted to those from indigenous, low-income or historically marginalized communities.

The Mexican Institute of Cannabis would be responsible for regulating the market and issuing licenses.

Public consumption of marijuana would be allowed, except in places where tobacco use is prohibited or at mass gatherings where people under 18 could be exposed.

Households where more than one adult lives would be limited to cultivating a maximum of six plants. The legislation also says people “should not” consume cannabis in homes where there are underaged individuals. Possession of more than 28 grams but fewer than 200 grams would be considered an infraction punishable by a fine but no jail time.

Monreal originally said the chamber would vote on the legalization bill by the end of October, that timeline did not work out.

If the Senate passes the legal cannabis bill it will still have to go before the other house of the nation’s Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in August that marijuana reform legislation will advance in the session that began in September.

Sen. Julio Ramón Menchaca Salazar, also of the MORENA party, said in April that legalizing cannabis could fill treasury coffers at a time when the economy is recovering from the pandemic.

As lawmakers work to advance the reform legislation, there’s been a more lighthearted push to focus attention on the issue by certain members and activists. That push has mostly involved planting and gifting marijuana.

In September, a top administration official was gifted a cannabis plant by senator on the Senate floor, and she said she’d be making it a part of her personal garden.

A different lawmaker gave the same official, Interior Ministry Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero, a marijuana joint on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies last year.

Cannabis made another appearance in the legislature in August, when Sen. Jesusa Rodríguez of the MORENA party decorated her desk with a marijuana plant.

Drug policy reform advocates have also been cultivating hundreds of marijuana plants in front of the Senate, putting pressure on legislators to make good on their pledge to advance legalization.

Read the text of the revised marijuana legalization bill discussed by Mexican Senate committees below: 

Mexico Senate Marijuana Bill by Marijuana Moment

Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content-sharing agreement. Read the original article here.

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