Canna Law Group attorney Robert McVay takes a hard look at the potential of derivative contracts for the cannabis industry and concludes that it’s an idea that is ahead of its time. The primary reservation is that cannabis isn’t a commodity, as there is too much variation within the overall category. Even if that weren’t the case, however, the lack of federal legality forces any sort of exchange to operate only within a single state, limiting the potential effectiveness of it as a speculative vehicle or hedging tool for producers.
While McVay is pessimistic about near-term opportunities, he maintains a hopeful longer-term perspective:
In the end, commodities futures trading is one of the many things for which the legal marijuana market is still just not ready. Give it a few years, though, and we all may be taking long positions on marijuana futures.
Read Robert McVay’s “The Future of Marijuana Futures”: http://www.cannalawblog.com/the-future-of-marijuana-futures/
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