Cannabis is becoming a hot commodity on the stock market.
Recently, Tilray Brands' CEO Irwin Simon, who leads a company that is among the largest cannabis brands on the planet, and one publicly traded on NASDAQ, said he thinks cannabis can become a seriously profitable industry within the United States.
"The U.S. is a $100 billion opportunity in cannabis," Simon told Yahoo Finance.
"If you look at cannabis today in the U.S., 93 percent of Americans want medical cannabis legalized and about 63-65 percent want adult use. Today, it's legal in about 33 states, plus D.C."
The money-making potential of cannabis is well known. In fiscal year 2021, Washington state alone generated $1.49 billion in retail sales. Washington is one of 19 states that have fully legalized cannabis, and it is far from the largest state that has done so. States like California and New York have more than double the population of Washington, and they've legalized cannabis as well. As have states like Virginia, Michigan and New Jersey, which also have more people than Washington.
As of market close on Friday, Aug. 12, Simon's Tilray Brands had a market capitalization of $2.34 billion.
That's just one company, but it has a market cap of nearly a billion dollars more than Washington's legal market generates annually. The Motley Fool, a publication covering the stock market, regularly updates a list of what it considers to be good investments called "Best Marijuana Stocks for 2022." Yahoo, Investopedia and U.S. News and World Report, among many others, offer similar lists.
Despite the federal prohibition of cannabis, the industry is being traded on renowned stock exchanges such as the NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange.
Some companies, like Tilray, are forthright in their commitment to the cannabis industry. Others, like British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI) are involved in the cannabis industry through more convoluted and hidden ways. Whether they're upfront about it or not, there are numerous publicly traded companies who are deeply involved with cannabis, which means regular people who invest in the stock market are able to invest money into the cannabis industry.
Whether or not investing in cannabis or cannabis-adjacent businesses is wise from a financial standpoint is still to be determined, but it is possible despite the drug's legal ambiguity. Imagine that a decade ago. ♦
