You’re reading a copy of this week’s edition of the New Cannabis Ventures weekly newsletter, which we have been publishing since October 2015. The newsletter includes unique insight to help our readers stay ahead of the curve as well as links to the week’s most important news.
Friends,
When the Senate changed hands earlier this year, the prospects for federal legalization suddenly shot up. On February 1st, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Democrat Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden issued a joint statement suggesting that they would be drafting comprehensive cannabis reform legislation. Almost four months later, this hasn’t yet happened. Boris Jordan suggested on Curaleaf’s Q1 conference call that the hold up is due to Schumer conferring with the FDA about its potential role. He stated that he expected the legislation to be introduced in May, which would mean this week. While the exact timing is uncertain, it’s quite apparent that legislation will be introduced soon and that this could be one of the most important moments to date for the cannabis industry and its investors. While progress has been made at several levels in the House of Representatives over the past few years, including passage again of the SAFE Banking Act on April 19th by a 321-101 vote, the Senate hasn’t even advanced legislation in any of its committees to date.
We think cannabis investors should be prepared to assess the legislation that is likely to be introduced imminently, as it could potentially bring traders into the space in the short-term, similar to what happened after Georgia run-off elections. What the legislation looks like could potentially change the way investors assess the long-term outlook as well, for better or for worse. Our view has been and remains that federal legalization has pros and cons for the current operators and that it will take a long time to play out. Ahead of what could be the next bit catalyst for the sector, we want to review those points today.
Federal Legalization Offers Opportunities as Well as Risks
Being federally illegal creates undue burdens for cannabis operators, but it also allows them to build strong franchises. We discuss the negatives often, including onerous taxation (280E), inability to scale due to the lack of interstate commerce, lack of access to capital or reasonably-priced capital. A big part of this point is that American cannabis operators are excluded from major exchanges. A very simplistic view of legalization would conclude that with all of these going away, it could only be an improvement from the status quo. We remind readers that the status quo has been very good to the leading operators despite these challenges. Legalization could introduce new challenges, like regulation by the FDA. That hasn’t worked out well at all for the CBD industry since hemp was legalized in 2018. Additionally, a quick move to interstate commerce could lead to a lot of cultivation assets becoming worth a lot less overnight. We think that there will always be a need for locally grown, high quality flower, but the reality is that production will shift to large-scale producers. Another open question about federal legalization is potential international commerce. We suggest that investors may find certain aspects of the proposed legislation to be a potential threat to the status quo.
Change Will Likely Be Slow
When Canada legalized for adult-use in 2018, it followed a three-year process. Before this, the country already had in place a federal medical cannabis program. It seems likely that any changes in the U.S. could take at least that long, if not longer. A major issue is that the Democrats need 60 votes to pass in the Senate, so there would need to be substantial bipartisan support.
Several issues that we think could lead to a drawn out debate include the threat that interstate commerce might represent to states with mature adult-use programs, like Colorado, Oregon and Washington and even some of the newer ones, like Illinois and Michigan. Social equity is very likely to be a big part of the pending bill, and this could slow down the process. Taxation details could slow down the negotiations as well. Finally, what role the FDA might play is a potential roadblock to rapid approval.
The Democrats have opted for a comprehensive approach rather than going for the low-hanging fruit, a strategy that seems quite risky given that they control the Senate by the slimmest of majorities. We think that there will be bipartisan support for certain aspects, but it seems unlikely to us that the Senate will find 60 votes in this session to pass comprehensive legislation. Perhaps the process will yield a smaller victory if that is the case, like SAFE Banking, which has bipartisan support.
How the Market Could React
While we view federal legalization cautiously from the perspective of assessing cannabis stock investments, we think the market’s short-term reaction would be quite positive, perhaps queuing a run similar to the first few weeks of this year. During that rally as well as after the November elections, Canadian LPs and ancillary names that trade on higher exchanges in the U.S. benefitted disproportionately compared to the actual American cannabis operators, and this could certainly happen again. Two factors argue against an exact repeat of this “betting on the wrong stock” syndrome. First, and maybe we are giving retail investors too much credit, that last run didn’t end very well for the stocks that went up the most, and perhaps lessons were learned. More importantly, there was a wave of equity selling by MSOs in January that restrained the rally in our view. At this point, the companies appear to be in great shape with respect to their balance sheets, and we don’t see supply of stock as big of an issue today as it was earlier this year.
So, while federal legalization legislation that is about to be introduced could have both positive and negative long-term implications for investors, we think the short-term reaction is likely to be very positive as investors buy first and ask questions later.
Preserve Cash Through Equipment Leasing
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by XS Financial
XS Financial provides the U.S. cannabis industry access to competitively priced, non-dilutive CAPEX financing solutions. Founded in 2017, the Company specializes in providing financing for equipment and other qualified capital expenditures to growing cannabis companies, including cultivators, processors, manufacturers, and testing laboratories. In addition, XSF has partnered with over 150 original equipment manufacturers (OEM) through its network of Preferred Vendor partnerships.
New Cannabis Ventures publishes curated articles as well as exclusive news. Here is some of the most interesting business content from this week:
- Ascend Wellness Nearly Triples Revenue in Q1 to $66.1 Million
- Exclusive: Canadian Cannabis Sales Increase 65% in March to $298 Million
- Exclusive: Cannabis Companies Kickoff 2021 With Strong Q1 Financial Results
- Exclusive: Cannabis Industry Lender AFC Gamma Looks Ahead to $500M Actionable Pipeline
- Cannabis REIT Raises $300 Million Selling 5-Year Notes at 5.50%
- Columbia Care Q1 Revenue Increases 227% to $86.1 Million
- Curaleaf to Buy Outdoor Colorado Cultivator Los Sueños for $67 Million
- Exclusive: Edibles Maker Plus Products Positions for Growing California Cannabis Market
- Greenlane Generates $34 Million Revenue in Q1
- HEXO to Acquire 48North in Stock-Based Deal Valued at C$50 Million
- MariMed Q1 Revenue Increases 230% to $24.6 Million
- TerrAscend Q1 Revenue Increases 106% to $53.4 Million
- The Parent Company Reports Q1 Revenue of $39.9 Million
- Verano Reports Q1 Pro Forma Revenue Increased 117% to $143 Million
To get real-time updates download our free mobile app for Android or Apple devices, like our Facebook page, or follow Alan on Twitter. Share and discover industry news with like-minded people on the largest cannabis investor and entrepreneur group on LinkedIn.
Get ahead of the crowd! If you are a cannabis investor and find value in our Sunday newsletters, subscribe to 420 Investor, Alan’s comprehensive stock due diligence platform since 2013. Gain immediate access to real-time and in-depth information and market intelligence about the publicly traded cannabis sector, including daily videos, weekly chats, model portfolios, a community forum and much more.
Use the suite of professionally managed NCV Cannabis Stock Indices to monitor the performance of publicly-traded cannabis companies within the day or over longer time-frames. In addition to the comprehensive Global Cannabis Stock Index, we offer a family of indices to track Canadian licensed producers as well as the American Cannabis Operator Index and the Ancillary Cannabis Index.
View the Public Cannabis Company Revenue & Income Tracker, which ranks the top revenue producing cannabis stocks that generate industry sales of more than US$12.5M per quarter.
Stay on top of some of the most important communications from public companies by viewing upcoming cannabis investor earnings conference calls.
Discover upcoming new listings with the curated Cannabis Stock IPOs and New Issues Tracker.
Sincerely,
Alan & Joel
